"If a hungry person is caught stealing bread, then the people of that country should feel ashamed."

@Thrust If someone is literally stealing food for themselves or their family, is this always a moral failing? Or is this a societal failure? You don't think it is possible that the person is stealing food to stay alive and they have no other way?

@IAmJess

Not in this country. We have an obesity, not starvation, problem

@Thrust I will certainly agree that the abesity issue in America is a far bigger issue than the hunger problem (in terms of number of people affected). But that doesn't mean there isn't also a hunger issue, right?

@IAmJess if you are seeking perfection on Earth you will be seeking a long, long time

@Thrust those two aren't mutually exclusive when wealth and food aren't distributed fairly.

@Thrust No, I am not seeking perfection on Earth. I'm simply asking the SW community what they think of the quote above and its implied obligation of those with resources toward those without. Seems like you feel no obligation to those with less. To me that is sad.

@NerdyPotato Agreed

@NerdyPotato wealth is earned not distributed. Sounds pretty commie to me

@Thrust Wealth is very much distributed. We have CHOSEN to distribute wealth in the western world through a system called capitalism. This system favors certain people over others. And that is fine. I'm not advocating anything other than capitalism. But that system absolutely distributes wealth to and among those with invested capital. There are other ways to distribute the resources of a society.

@Thrust most wealth is stolen. And communism is about equal distribution. Fair is something different.

@NerdyPotato 🙄

@IAmJess


Forgive me if I am skeptical

@NerdyPotato Sorry, we are going to part ways on this. Most wealth is not stolen and that is demonstrably so.

@Thrust From one skeptic to another, no forgiveness needed. But there is a difference between believing passionately in the concept of Noblesse Oblige (sp?) and being a communist. I do believe that we all have an obligation to those coming up behind us. But I would never advocate for forced redistribution of wealth under a communist-like system.

@IAmJess maybe not in the traditional sense, but companies wouldn't make profit if they pay their workers all the value they add.

@IAmJess so we're pretty much on the same page.

As a fellow (native) Bostonian, what we really need to distribute is talent, motivation, whatever to the Bruins to stop looking like Jerry's Kids on the ice 😋

@NerdyPotato um, are you saying companies should deliberately forgo profit. Let's see how long they stay around

@NerdyPotato Okay, now we are talking economics.....

A hypothetical product cost $1.00

The factory where it was made costs $10,000 and can be financed for ten years and can produce 2,000 units a year.

If you do the math, then that is some "value" that must be netted from the $1.00, right?

Okay, and someone put up the capital downpayment that the bank would require to finance that factory, right? Is he owed some return on that outlay?

Next, the product has raw materials, right?

And, of course, labor.

I point all this out because so many people only want to count labor, but labor is usually a small part of the "value" that goes into creating a product.

Now, with all that said, I do think we put too much downward pressure on labor costs by demanding cheap products. Most of the other components of the cost are not as flexible as labor. We need to not always look for the cheapest product on the shelf.

@Thrust That's hockey, right?



😂

@IAmJess yes. The Celtics are a better use of your time now

@IAmJess 18 year dynasty in a salary cap era with so many other teams. Quite remarkable

@Thrust No, but profit for the owner is generated by workers and not given to them. That's a reward for taking risks with investment in machines etc, but should that be multiple billions while workers making that money can barely afford food? I think not.

@IAmJess There's more costs than just labor indeed, but that's taken into count before profit too.

@NerdyPotato let the market decide that. And as much as you want to believe it, working people are not starving

@NerdyPotato All costs are taken into account before profit. That's how business works. And most companies, the vast majority, make marginal profits. Sure, the billionaires make the headlines, but they are not most companies.