Poverty of Workers

"An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Poverty of Workers"

"Capitalism's ideal is predicated upon a basic assumption that all parties involved in a trade are of equal bargaining power and are equally informed. While the concentration of capital resources is generally considered good, it also naturally concentrates power and authority upon the one holding the capital.

When negotiating, all sides naturally seek the best deal for themselves, however when one side has more power and leverage than the other, deals become one-sided.

This applies to transactions of capital resources, when a larger firm engaged with a smaller one. It also applies to the sale of human capital - what we call labor.

Labor is often negotiated between two people - the laborer, who represents only himself, and the capitalist, who represents a much larger power. This leads to an inbalance in negotiations, what Capitalism calls a Market Failure and Adam Smith suggests government action to address this imbalance.

Another solution is to increase the power of labor in the same way the power of capital was increased, by pooling it together and negotiating with the power of the entire collective group rather than with individuals.

Historical examples of this grouping of labor includes guilds, but a more modern and general example is the Union."

Something something applying Capitalist theories and terms to labor (human capital), merged with repeatingly underscoring Capitalism's market failures cannot be addressed with more Capitalism.

Something something Market Optimims are not Social Optimims (fire extinguishers, pollution), "Rational" Market behavior left to it's own devices does not account for externalities, that the "invisible hand of the marketplace" is a socially inefficient way to run a society...

And of.course I'm.not a genuis so someone else wrote all this.before somewhere.

"Morgan has it backwards. Economic Behavior is Human Behavior, not the other way around. The difference is that while economics can model how humans work, it is solely a single piece of the puzzle."

"Economics alone cannot explain religious or ethnic stife, nor can it model civics or politics.

Nor should it. An analysis should use economics - but studying and reporting on human activity solely through the lens of economics gives a skewed and incomplete view."

"Capitalist theory assumes that all actors will be "rational" in the sense of making the best economic decision for themselves.

Thus there are those who claim "businesses won't discriminate against people because that's leaving money on the table," begging the question that a business's only guiding thought is making money, and that other non-economic factors are in play.

Record shows plenty of firms refuse business to groups or sets of people for social reasons, or faced social or even political censure for serving people who would otherwise be normal customers."

"This is but one example where an economic analysis of human behavior falls short, where the underlying assumption of 'rationality' is false.

Market based analysis often misses or ignores issues a cultural, Civic, or social analysis would have immediately shown. "

I don't know where I'm going with this

Something something economic analysis also forces a monetary value on things, which can be arbitrary. Like art.