1271
Rational Self Interest
(lemmy.world)
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This isn't exactly the most convincing argument against Rand's philosophy - the workers didn't invent the device and don't work any harder than they did before. Their feeling of entitlement to the profit from it appears to be naked greed unsupported by any moral principle. Acting in one's rational self-interest would include keeping them placated if they can credibly threaten violence, but their role as workers is completely irrelevant in that context.
You're missing a very important point here, which is that the workers are the ones whose labor is turned into profit. That means that if their work is able to generate more money, they are perfectly within their right to demand more, even if they don't necessarily work any harder.
A company needs to make a profit to be able to continue operating though. If they can't, then these people have no jobs at all.
Nowhere did I say the company shouldn't make a profit. It's only natural that companies would have significant expenses around material, jobs, offices, and all that stuff, and that's fine. The problem arises when the company has a way to more efficiently make money, and, instead of doing things like reducing worker hours or increasing worker pay, it expects everyone to work the exact same amount and just pockets the money (not to mention when companies do things like firing a lot of their staff during a time of record profits).
You've been spot on with your replies to this bootlicker so far, but none of the things you mentioned here come under "profits", those are expenses.
It is the money that companies make after expenses that is the profit, and they are mostly able to make so much of it because they don't pay their employees fairly for their labour, nor for any other value they produce for the owners of company, who do very little to no work, and are absolutely not entitled to the fruits of other peoples' labour, no matter how tasty their boot might be.
They also maintain a system that means that employees don't have the free choice capitalists love to wave around - if they don't participate in this exploitative bullshit, they become homeless and starve, because our human rights, like our labour, have also been commodified so that a couple of thousand people can hoard all of the money and power that comes with it.