Economics Questions

Re: The chief task of a proletarian regime to transform labor from a pain into pleasure

Bogart — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:50:57 GMT

You are correct. The fallacy is that no one in society desires private property when everyone does and the Communist bureaucracy steals it through theft. Keep in mind that Marx and his followers were using the Labor Theory of Value, which is easily shown incorrect through real examples. So the only input that gives value is labor. Therefore reducing machinery and productivity saving management would hurt the value of something. I find it so convoluted and irrational as Austrian Economic student have trouble comprehending the logic much less describing it.

That is why when arguing about China vs the USA in the 1970s the Chinese bureaucrat said that Communism in China would survive because they could always employ people by getting rid of machinery and letting the laborers use picks and shovels to build roads, farm crops, etc. The USA dude responded that he could employ a lot more people if they get rid of tools and use spoons or the their bare hands.

Re: The chief task of a proletarian regime to transform labor from a pain into pleasure

Sieben — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:13:28 GMT

Jeremiah Dyke:
Correct me if my implications are wrong but isn’t this the equivalent of transforming labor from a means to an end... to labor being the actual end itself?

Can't it be both a means and an end? Like professors of anthropology get paid (a little) and its also really really enjoyable to them?

The chief task of a proletarian regime to transform labor from a pain into pleasure

Jeremiah Dyke — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:09:19 GMT

It is pointed out by Mises that it it’s the chief task of a proletarian regime to transform labor from a pain into pleasure.

Correct me if my implications are wrong but isn’t this the equivalent of transforming labor from a means to an end... to labor being the actual end itself? What would be produced if labor was its own end? Free economies increase production so that they may consume more leisure, yet if a socialist society wanted to consume more labor they would need declining production. They would rid their selves of labor saving technology so that more labor is available.

Some portion of the society must love leasure in order to guide production to be more productive.