Logic in capitalism

[Mark Carolus]

Capitalism is about making a profit.

 

Put simply, I need to produce or sell for 100 dollars worth a day, in order to make a 10 dollar profit after my 90 dollar expenditure.

 

It is mathematically impossible, for everyone to do so.

[ProfessionalTeabagger]

Capitalism is about making a profit.

 

Put simply, I need to produce or sell for 100 dollars worth a day, in order to make a 10 dollar profit after my 90 dollar expenditure.

As far as I understand, that's a loss, not a profit.

[Demosthenes_]

All economic systems are a means of making a profit.

[Wuzzums]

Capitalism is about making a profit.

 

Put simply, I need to produce or sell for 100 dollars worth a day, in order to make a 10 dollar profit after my 90 dollar expenditure.

 

It is mathematically impossible, for everyone to do so.

[Pepin]

Think about it in terms of a barter economy selling grains and produce. Is it possible for everyone to profit off of every transaction all the while not starving? How about actually being better off than they were before?

 

I suggest thinking about it in these terms as money is far more complex than we imagine it.

[Slavik]

Capitalism is about making a profit.

 

Put simply, I need to produce or sell for 100 dollars worth a day, in order to make a 10 dollar profit after my 90 dollar expenditure.

It is mathematically impossible, for everyone to do so

 

Why do you think its mathematically impossible when you have just shown the math?  You just shown in a simple way how this works, you spend an X amount and you collect a percentage point from the profit.  Where is the impossibility?

[SamuelS]

You'd only be right if nobody ever added value...in your example $10 was added over costs. This does end up being a problem with fiat currencies since new money only comes into the system from the top, thus the money creators end up with most of the new wealth flowing into their hands, but don't confuse fiat currencies for capitalism.

[Andrew79]

Right back at ya:

 

Non-capitalist systems are not about making profit.

 

And without profit and loss there is no effective method to tell what is and isn't working.

 

It is mathematically impossible to run an economy like this.

 

The only possible result is poverty and starvation. And every time it's been tried that's what we've seen.

 

For example, in Venezuela, where the government is "only" using various profit and price capping policies, we can see the resulting shortages. For the sake of the people living there I hope the politicians don't decide to further hamper the market...

 

Attacking capitalism through "logic", or rather by trying to play on most people's ignorance of economics, is a deeply dishonest thing to do. Especially when, if logic is a concern for you, I demonstrated above that the non-capitalist systems fall at the very first hurdle.

 

For you to advocate against capitalism, Mark Carolus, is for you to advocate for evil.

[luxfelix]

Have you ever played Settlers of Catan?

 

There's more to the game's economy than just the resource cards. 

 

Similar to our world's economy, there are other forms of capital aside from financial capital, and not all economic decisions are based on logic alone.

[cobra2411]

Capitalism, in my opinion, is where both sides get more value then what they bring. If I'm hungry, I can give the sandwich maker $5 for a sandwich. I'd rather have the sandwich and he'd rather have the $5. It's a win-win. 

 

Then the state get involved and taxes my earnings, the sandwich makers earnings and the sale. The regulate that you can only get sandwiches from licensed sandwiches sellers and they restrict who can get those licenses. They tax gross sales, the building, the water, electric, etc...

 

Hey .gov, this is an A-B transaction, C your way out of it...  

[NotDarkYet]

Part 1)

 

I value item X = 5

 

You value item X = 10

 

 

Part 2)

 

I give you item X.

 

You give me (= or < than) 10 value Units.

 

 

 

 

BOTH people are better off.

 

 

 

Take this interaction times billions....and you have a richer economy.

 

 

For empirical evidence:  See North vs South Korea

[Kevin Beal]

It's not mathematically impossible to spend $90 to make $10 and have it be sustainable for all people. At least not because you say so.

 

Grocery stores make a couple of cents off of most of the goods they sell, because they spend far more than 90% to make that work. But you're not asking yourself where that money goes. A portion goes to pay employees, and all the different indirect things that go toward bringing more value to their customers, like a clean store, working carts, equipment to make ready to eat food, etc. A much larger portion goes to food wholesalers. The vast majority (as I understand it) of business expenses happen between businesses. What this affords us the consumers is infinitely more accessible and higher quality goods because there are profit incentives for businesses to specialize, that is, to find ways of doing things in far more sustainable ways requiring fewer resources.

 

The only way that what you're saying could make any sense is if 90% of the money were just thrown in the trash.

 

The reason that bitcoin is even possible is because of profit incentives, which are much smaller margins than when they spend (hence "profit margin"). Profit enables things which are economically impossible otherwise.

 

The temptation of many people is to conflate the word "profit" with the word "spoils" (as in "spoils of war"). This equivocation between these two vastly different meanings of the word leads to specious reasoning, false conclusions and in some cases millions of innocent people murdered. So, please take the time to understand the meanings of the words that you use.