WHAT’S WRONG WITH CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM
WHEN NOT PAYING PEOPLE TO DO GOOD (PRODUCTION), WE HAVE TO PAY PEOPLE FOR NOT DOING BAD.
(From elsewhere)
Competition is necessary for INVENTION, including the inventions in productivity that reduce prices – and competition is necessary to eliminate rent seeking (parasitism).
Property, Contract, Money, Prices, Profit, are necessary for people to possess the information necessary to determine how to fulfill their self interest, while acting in the service of others.
The problem with capitalism is that large numbers of the population are not able to provide others with any value in exchange for production other than NOT DOING bad things. In other words, an increasing percentage of the populace is unnecessary to production of good and services. But as long as they don’t interfere with the voluntary organization of production, distribution, and trade, by undermining property, contract, money, prices, profit, and competition, and as long as they don’t engage in rent seeking, then by their INACTION they are contributing to the construction of the order we call capitalism, that makes an advanced consumer economy possible.
The issue then is if a minority of people are paid for production and the majority of people are not paid for production, but we still need them to produce the possibility of capitalist production, then how will we pay them?
In the past one gained access to the market by observing manners, ethics, morals and laws. But if one cannot gain access, then how do we compensate him for not doing bad things. Because it is by not doing bad things that the capitalist method of voluntary organization of production is made possible.