“Workers are not risk averse, per se, tho some may be. They do not have a low time preference, at least as far as any common definition of preference would say, per se, tho some may. What workers are is a diverse array of individuals with a diverse array of motives.”
Who has said that labourers per se have higher time preference? Such statement implies that a labourer is a type of individual (like he carries some inherited biological qualities, which prevent him from being something other than a labourer). As I wrote above, labouring is a type of action, just like entrepreneurship is a type of action. This means that no individual is inherently a labourer or an entrepreneur. He can, for example, now be a labourer, but later start his production. When one is at a time labourer, then this action of his takes place in a world where certain conditions are present (such as relative scarcity of resouces, uncertainty, time). To put it in other words, his action is not performed in a state where goods are superabundant, where everything is stationary, and where he lives for an infinity. Then, obviously, his action takes into account such concepts like scarcity, changing circumstances and time. Thanks to man’s inbuilt “set of tools for grasping reality”, he can obtain knowledge about the world outside his own mind. This mental equipments enable him to think, to act. Hence, an individual, who chose to become a labourer, acts, and this act of his reveals us how did his mind process the knowledge acquisited about the conditions of the external world. It reveals us his mind’s modus operandi. That is why we can correctly deduct that he either has higher time preference compared to the guy who hired him, or he is relatively more risk-averse than the guy who hired him.
“The sold the promise of future work for fixed payments once work is recieved, and they are nearly as, if not just as, at risk if the entrepreneur fails as the entrepreneur.”
I will add to Esuric’s reply to this quote of yours only that the labourer has a contractual agreement to be paid a fixed amount of money regularly in contrast to the entrepreneur who does not have a contractual agreement with anyone to receive profit and/or interest.
I now again read this post of Eric’s and it starts to look more and more obvious what is the confusion
1.) There is no way you could know for example that donald trumps daughter (were she to become a capitalist, idk if she is) has a lower time preference than say a worker in China.
Let me repeat myself:
i) A labourer is not a type of individual, it is an individual who performs a type of action.
ii) I am not comparing every labourer’s time preference or risk tolerance to every capitalist’s time preference or risk tolerance. I am contrasting one labourer’s time preference and risk tolerance to that of the capitalist who employs him.
So I can not know whether the daughter of donald trump has got lower or higher time preference than me. If she approaches me with an employment offer, then according to my response, we will be able to contrast each one’s degree of time preference or risk tolerance.