• Zagorath@aussie.zone
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    1 day ago

    First, to clear up, I understood that you meant that “capitalism can (sometimes) profit without exploiting workers”

    So to be clear, I absolutely was not saying that. Almost by definition, capitalism requires exploitation. I’m not sure I agree with the Marxist point of view of the labour theory of value that labour is the only thing that provides value (because it seems obvious to me that capital does provide value—I think there was a great video from Unlearning Economics on the subject), but I do agree that when workers don’t own the capital, their labour is going to be exploited and the surplus value extracted.

    If you could provide an example where there is profit without exploitation of worker

    Because of the example I described earlier. I could run a business consisting only of myself, and still theoretically have a profitable business.

    By extension, it should be possible (maybe in a worker-owned co-op) for multiple workers to work in a business which is also profitable. Maybe they decide to spend that profit on bonuses for each other; maybe they invest it back into the business by buying more capital to make themselves more efficient. Maybe something else. But the point is that workers don’t have to be exploited for profit to exist.