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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (gam)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Overlooked Contributions of the Rich
Message-ID: <1184@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Feb-85 23:26:39 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1184
Posted: Fri Feb 22 23:26:39 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 03:46:15 EST
References: <792@utcsri.UUCP>
Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort, Hellmouth, CA
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> > = amdahl!gam
>   = Vassos Hadzilacos

> > The Rich also create jobs, because they are willing to pay people to
> > do things they themselves are not willing to do.  This is, in effect,
> > redistributing wealth.
> 
> Huh? How is this "redistributing wealth"? The auto manufacturer pays
> wages and gets cars. The cars he gets are worth more than the wages
> he pays (otherwise he would have long ceased to be an auto manufacturer).
> Therfore, not only does he not "redistribute wealth" but in fact
> appropriates the wealth created by the labour power he hires.

The auto manufacturer could not get cars if he were not able to
pay wages.  And the auto-workers get paid quite a bit.  More than
just about anyone reading this network.

The workers get a share of the value of their labor.  If there were
no auto manufacturing company to pay them, their labor would be
worthless.  It is because some person with a lot of money (theirs
or someone else's) is willing to pay them for their labor that
these people have jobs.  Isn't that nice?

Here is another example, which I was thinking of when I originally
posted the article:

I am not rich, but I have enough money so that I can pay a woman
to clean my home.  I don't have the time nor inclination to do
it myself.  She does it, and she gets paid rather well for it
($6.50/hr).  (She also does a good job; she even irons my shirts!)

If I did not have the disposable income to hire a housekeeper,
this woman would be out of roughly $100/mo, and I would be stuck
with a messy home.

I think this situation is typically of many employee-employer
relationships.  There seems to be a common belief by some
readers here that the employer-employee relationship is
a "win-lose" situation, but this is not true.  Most such
relationships are win-win (as this one is).

> Thank goodness there are the Rich in this world to take care of
> redistributing wealth.  And thank goodness there are thoughtful
> people to remind ungrateful knee-jerk radicals of the important
> social contributions of the Rich.

Hey, easy there.  That's "bleeding-heart quiche-eating limp-wristed
knee-jerk egg-sucking bed-wetting liberals" (thank you, canopus).
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!gam