an oldie but a goodie

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Did he do the market research, R&D, design, patent application, QA, machine tooling, material resourcing, QC, marketing, sales, technical support, administration, transportation... all on his own too or did he just pull a lever on a machine?
My money's on something closer to the latter. This is a terrible reflection on production and labour costs.
- No, it's a fine reflection of production and labor costs.
  It's a poor representation of development costs and total costs for a product. No doubt a part of the picture is missing, because it's not like he's producing the thing then it goes right on to store shelves and people buy it up by the truckload right from where he works. Any reasonable person should be able to surmise that he shouldn't earn so much that he can buy 3000 of them from one hour of labor where he produces 3000 of them... There's packaging (even if they're just hucked into a box, it's still a package), material costs, the development costs not only of the part, but of the machinery to make the part, transportation of the raw material and finished product, sales, marketing, management, and losses from defective, malformed or otherwise unsellable units that need to be disposed of or recycled.
  Every part of that costs money and there's probably a bunch of stuff I've left out, meanwhile, the image does not even remotely discuss any of it, but with everything that's made, it's generally understood that he's not going to make 3000 things worth of money per hour.
  That's not the point and it never was.
  The point is there is a 1000 fold difference in what he makes vs what he's making; and it doesn't take a lot of brainpower to realize that he's not being compensated fairly for his efforts in creating those.... Things. Wtf are they anyways? ... Doesn't matter, he should make more per unit than 1/1000th the selling price.
  Bluntly, that's pretty obvious to me and IMO, that's obvious to the majority of people who see this. Pointing out that he didn't pay for the R&D is a strawman argument at best.
  
  I agree completely with the sentiment, but I have to disagree with one part: "Any reasonable person should be able to surmise..."
  If we take "reasonable" to mean "average" then you are dead wrong. It's been my experience that most people have no clue at all about supply chains or how products make it to them. If they buy a thing at a store for $50, they believe that the store has made $50. Retail is a terrible place to be.
  
  He probably is underpayed, but that image does not make any reasonable argument to issue. It illustrates labor division if anything at all. If I am the last one on the assembly line of Ford, wondering why I can't afford ten cars an hour is just idiotic.
  Again, he probably is underpaid, and people are probably making too money from his work, but that doesn't make that image make sense.
  
  Exactly, the fact that most commenters on a Socialist board don’t get this is troubling.
  
  It isn't immediately obvious to libs that want healthcare though. They much prefer blindly defending a process they have only one data point on.
  At the end of day, even if you assume this is the most efficiently run business in existence with everyone being fairly and equitably compensated for their skill, time, risk, and effort, he would still be owed 4 instead simply by elimination of the capitalist's unearned share.

How many laborers are involved in the entire chain until he can buy this piece?
Idk about this one.
- Good point, there's probably 999 other people working on those same exact pieces.
  
  And who's paying for the materials, and who made the machines that make these, etc etc.
  
  Likely many more than 999 other people.
  Another oldie but goodie: I, Pencil (https://youtu.be/IYO3tOqDISE?si=Lmw71tIKdZ86cjUn)
  It's hard to do anything nowadays without the contribution of millions of people.
  Doesn't mean they're all compensated fairly; most are not, but it's hard to tell who does and who doesn't from a single wage to end product cost difference.

"Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That's why I post memes on company time."
- You joke, but (TMI warning) I'm doing what the real song says right now.
  💩
- Literally me posting this

The fuck are they??
- IIRC from the original post they're bushings for motorcycle or bicycle suspensions
  
  Ah, yes. The bushings. For the motorised cycles or the bicycles on suspension. Provides robust, dynamic performance.
  
  Bloke in the pic looks like he wears them in his ears
- You mean you don't use them daily? Cmon get with it. /s
- ACME Thingies. The most relatable something used by beings.

I keep staring at it, but can't figure out what it's supposed to be.
- It's a widget!

You know, how in the olden days people started farming so a few could feed the whole village while the rest produced other neccessaries?

32 comments