The American dream didn't die.
That makes it sound like a natural event.
Like it was inevitable.
Here's the truth:
It was fucking murdered.
By greedy, unchecked corporations, bought and paid for politicians, and every coked-up asshole on Wall Street.
Inventions and creative work don't spontaneously turn into money. You have to either sell the rights for a lot of money or set up production and distribution channels.
Either way it takes a lot of pre-existing wealth and a partner in the position to exploit others.
Okay. If you'd like to share the details then i'll be willing to concede that invention and creative work can make one wealthy without exploitation.
You could make enough jewelry on your own to stock 1,000s of stores?
So to collect all that revenue, you could only do it through the cooperation of many people contributing their labor?
If that’s the case—if that revenue is only available when someone else labors—it seems like it’s at least as much *their* hard work, and thus not clear why any one person should be able to become wealthier than anyone else participating in that collaborative effort.
«Thousands»? For each hour of theirs? Seriously?
Let's say they work a week for you, 40 hours. That means you've done the equivalent of some multiple of 40 thousand hours of work throughout that same week?
That's an absurdity.
You also said «for every hour». That implies some kind of proportionality. Like every hour of their present effort multiplies the value of your past effort rather than adding to it.
I think it's very telling that you value your past effort in the thousands of hours while calling the present effort of laborers “just labor” worth only a fraction of yours.
It makes me suspect that whatever wage you had in mind would not be a “good” wage for their effort.
Your language reveals that you undervalue the contribution of your laborers relative to yours.
Having someone work for you whose contribution you undervalue is called exploitation.
Precisely the thing you said was unnecessary for building wealth.
Good luck with your enterprises, and may you continue to avoid exploiting others in pursuit of wealth.
JA Westenberg
@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNote
Fabio G.
HeavenlyPossum