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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Father Terrence who wrote (7584)4/30/1997 11:04:00 PM
From: epicure   of 108807
 
You are fixated on Edison.

There is and will be no perfect world where economic and social coercive forces are eliminated. The industrial revolution came close to being the kind of world you describe with no brakes on capitalism. Of course there were terrible social pressures that made the workers captives of there employers, so it was in no way the sort of free arena for men to bargain fairly for employment and to realize the value of their labor.

You can say "men who produce own the value" but when it comes down to it how do you really value every man's labor fairly? If it is the market that determines this, and all markets have swings, then the value placed on a man's labor may, or may not be fair at any given time, unless you believe that value for value is whatever the market will bear. This sounds nice but doesn't create a very harmonious society.

While you may believe what you say, what would you do with people who can't or won't work? Let them starve? That doesn't make for a comfortable society. What about a factory in an area so depressed people are willing to work for 25› an hour and work 12 hour days? What about a producer of value who decides it is worth it to him not to have safety equipment, that the cost of putting such equipment in is greater than the cost of compensating a workers family for death or injury? Or a producer of value who decides to pollute groundwater because it is the most expedient way to do something and the fines, if there are any, will be miniscule compared to his benefit. Would these things not happen in your truly free society? I submit these and other problems would crop up, and I am curious as to how your philosophy deals with such things.
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