I’ve just been thinking about how socialists say that wages are there to keep you bound to capitalists, and, that the capitalists somehow are exploiting you when you work and not giving you what you deserve. I hope to in this topic, to, destroy whatever such fallacies there may be with the idea that it is exploitation, and, that it’s not really a fallacy, but a deep rooted feeling of jealousy, and, hatred for the capitalists who employ them and give them work.
What I am about to quote is from a socialist leaning website
It is true that it costs a lot to live. That is completely true. But, are they really exploiting you? I work at my school’s book store… and all I’m doing is just going around helping people find books. I don’t necessarily think that I’m not getting paid as much as I should. I realize that I’m as expendable as the next worker. This leads me to my next point. I don’t believe socialists understand the concept of skilled labor versus unskilled labor… or if they do understand they’re failing to overlook the fact that people are paid according to the amount of value that their labor is worth.
Skilled labor is high in demand. People with lots of skills with labor work in service sectors, they’ll work in technology jobs, they’ll work with computers. People with skilled labor are paid more than people who have unskilled labor because the people with unskilled labor may not necessarily have the same skills as people with skilled labor do. Of course, people who do unskilled jobs may also have the right skills to do skilled labor. But, they might not have a job that’s high in demand because other people have that job right now, they’ve been out of education for a long time so they aren’t as quick to learn as others are, or, perhaps just for any reason they might not have it. People who work for unskilled labor aren’t paid that much because their jobs are things that anyone could do. If you’re a waiter or a waitress, or, a store clerk, you can easily get replaced. People with unskilled jobs are expendable.
All of this brings me to my point. It’s not exploitation. It’s that the companies can’t pay everyone a high salary. I’m not going to bring up the “life isn’t fair” argument because that’s not where I’m going with this. Companies have to pay for their operating costs, their advertising costs, and, many other things. I don’t feel exploited at all. It sounds nice, like, you would like to blame your boss for everything… I personally think the people more inclined to socialism are more inclined to hate the corporate world, and, everything about it.
They deeply hate the fact that they are bound to rules in a capitalist society. This hatred comes from both a failure to understand basic economics and just deep resentment for those people that are successful. The idea goes that people who are successful in the business world are successful because they rip off others and profit from it, or, exploit the masses. This may be true in some cases, like Bernie Madoff, but socialists paint everyone with the same brush.
Entrepeneurs must figure out the right balance of spending, on total costs, average total costs, average variable costs, and their fixed costs… that is all part of the delicate game of running a business. It’s not exploitation. It’s that your (a) the labor of the masses who work at menial job is relatively easy and can be done by anyone and (b) Companies must make a profit or go bankrupt. There’s no if’s, ands, or buts about it. Companies have to make a profit.
It’s not exploitation. It’s merely an economic fact. If people don’t have a profit motive there will be no motivation to succeed. You can’t have your wages too high or you won’t be able to pay for other things that your company needs.
That’s my refutation to the socialist theory on slave-wages and exploitations. I’ve thought about it a lot and that’s what I’ve come up with. What do you think about it?