Re: Profit and Value, was: Re(2): [ox-en] extrinsic motivation = coercion

Smári McCarthy wrote:
> Profit != benefit. All work and produce thereof is, we can imagine, in
> some way beneficial. However, profit comes only when the value of the
> product is higher than the cost of production. If I try to profit from
> you, I am trying to get from you more than what I am offering is worth.
>   

The value of what you are offering is contextual. It is worth something 
to you, something different to someone else. There is no one global 
measure that can be applied.

> In a free market, price theory says (which is, as Diego correctly points
> out, an equilibrium theory, but equilibriums occur naturally in the
> absence of external "coercive" influence), the ability of any player to
> profit from another is decreased by the ability of third parties to
> compete. If the market is free, competition (or, better, cooperation) is
> on equal ground, and profit is driven to zero.
>   

This in itself is already a myth. In a true equilibrium (if that would 
exist) there wouldn't be any exchange.
Of course, there is no equilibrium. We are living in a world of massive 
consumption, producing a lot of waste.
So trying equilibrium-based theories is doomed to fail.

Regards,
       Stefan

-- 

      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...

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