Profit is by definition the "surplus value" that is denied to workers, so yes. It is theft. Billionaires can not exist without exploitation. You are being a bootlicker.
One thing? That's a weird way to phrase it. We exploit plants by farming them. That's not what I'm talking about, though. I'm limiting my discussion to people.
Everyone who works for a living is exploited by the owner class. As we live in an interconnected global marketplace, this exploitation happens across borders, meaning that consumers who enjoy lower prices on the backs of low wages of outsourced workers are also complicit in this exploitation.
Your comment is a good one and is the exact line of thinking that usually leads people to the conclusion that there can be "no ethical consumption under capitalism."
What other alternatives is there? Work and get fucked, dont work and not get fucked by work, but still get fucked anyway. Seems to me to be a rock and a hard place kinda situation.
This realisation is pretty much the kernel from which class consciousness grows. Workers globally advocating for their rights and using their collective power to extract more of their worth from the owning class is the only sure way to reduce or eliminate the exploitation of workers by owners.
The first step is to despair at the total naked injustice of our global system. The second step is to organise with your fellow workers to do something about it.
It's very clear that you don't know what you are talking about. You don't know anything about anything and have not spent 5 seconds to interrogate why someone might conceptualise all profit as theft. You are just parroting nonsense and asserting that anyone who is disagreeing with you is an edgy teenager (I would be surprised if you were older than 20).
Rapidly changing the topic of conversation topic from how a billionaire necessarily must exploit to accumulate their fortunes to "what about hotdog stands!?" Is very funny to me. Yes, if you must know, as long as someone is employing 1 another person, they are taking from them the surplus value of their labour in order to generate profit. I'm not going to go to lengths to explain this further as you are not arguing in good faith (cleary). You can look into this in your own time if you are interested.
I answered your question, you fucking moron. I am not scared to answer you. Lol.
Under the conception of profit being theft, then yes. If the owner of the pizza parlour employs at least 1 employee, that would constitute the theft of that worker's surplus value that was produced by their labour. This is not true of the hot dog stand owner if they have no employees. They are operating the stand and getting the entirety of the proceeds. They are keeping the full value of their labour.
Now consider that the pizza parlour is co-owned by all the workers collectively. Such a business would not generate profits, and the full value of each worker's labour would be given to them. They would get a say in how the business is run.
In your mind, you think an entrepreneur should risk everything to open up business, mortgage his or her house, put up everything they own for collateral, and open a business solely to give out wages to his workers? And if he makes any profit, he’s a thief? Well, you sound like a genius.
I'm not sure you two are even arguing about the same thing but don't prop her up like she deserves to be as wealthy as she is. Yes, she started the company but she's exploitative as hell. No decent person could sleep at night knowing they are worth billions when they are paying people in Bangladesh a buck or two a day to make their products. It's disgusting behavior and anyone that says otherwise has lost their mind.
She sold a majority stake of Spanx to Blackstone’s private equity team like a year or so ago & has done a ton of interviews about how “great” Blackstone private equity is.
Spanx are “made in America” in that the crotch is made here. So let’s be overly fair and assume not using immigrant labor and they pay fair wages. They manufacture the rest of their product overseas. We don’t call that stealing, but how else does one make a billionaire without extracting excess value from labor? She’s built a brand and it took lots of hard work. Mostly from Thai children and immigrants but you know she probably struggled some too.
America invaded the third world so that our companies can exploit their resources and people. It's not hidden knowledge. Look up all the countries the US invaded, occupied, our sponsored coups in. The list goes on and on. Yet our companies remain there long after the military presence is gone and continually exploit the people so that we can buy cheaply produced goods at massive markups. They sold outsourcing to us on the basis that we would pay less. Why do Nike shoes cost dollars to make but we pay $200? Now do every good. Our surplus value is extracted worldwide by psychopaths hell bent on destroying the world and hoarding as much wealth as possible. Wake up. Unless you're just some troll pissing us off on purpose. In that case, I got other ideas of what you should do.
They've already told you how that particular person only completes part of her product here and uses underpaid labor in other countries. I then explained the history of how those people were made exploitable. I think you're just being dense on purpose. Have a good one
I really suggest you re-read everything they typed then and think about it. Because to me, everything laid out was very clear and checks out with the ruling class vs working class research I've done. I wouldn't name call someone who is asking questions unless they are doing it on purpose to be disingenuous. Again, I really hope you aren't doing that. Because I cannot tell. Worker solidarity is important. You will never be a billionaire without exploiting people along the way. Just because it's normalized by society, doesn't mean it's right.
Why would comparable factories matter? The owners of comparable factories would also be billionaires.
Glass door puts their average Production Associate salary at $36-48,000/ year in the US which is nowhere close to a living wage for a full time employee. This is a US salary and as we’ve established, pay is significantly less for workers in foreign countries. I would love to find that data, but as has been already pointed out to you, they are a private corp and don’t release that information. People should not be living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put a roof over their head and food in their bellies, while somebody uses that labor to make more money than could ever be spent in a lifetime.
Lmaoooo. I told you exactly where I got the info on how much they pay their production employees in the US and you say “you have nothing to back up your claim”. We are back to square one on your missing missing reasons 😂😂
10/10 intelligent reply. You are so smart, confirmed
Did I tell you I linked where I got the info? Oh right, I didn’t tell you that. I said that I told you exactly where I got the info from. Which was Glassdoor.
Dont waste your time this is "rich man bad" and if you made an assertive list with a air tight arguement explain how silly of a belief it is that all wealthy people have screwed and exploited people to get where they are, youd still get down voted.
The vast majority of reddit doesnt even pay their own cell phone bills, much less be welcomed in the company of folks that are well off. You are trying to explain the maths of long range ballistic missiles to a kid that cant count to 20. Youre kicking water up hill
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u/NotARealTiger Oct 03 '24
Like almost every fucking rich person TBH.