Although Workers Day was conceived and instituted as a way to honor and promote the interests of the organized labor movement and the unions that control it, the day can take on much more significance than that if we view it as a day to commemorate the fundamental importance of work as an element of the human condition.
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith stated that labor is essential to the creation of wealth and called labor “the true measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.” Karl Marx transformed this “labor theory of value” into an entirely different concept, the theory of surplus value, which claimed that human labor is the source of all economic value, ignoring the contribution of other resources. This fallacy is the cornerstone of Marx's thought and is the foundation of communism, socialism, and many other authoritarian schemes to dominate humanity.
Property ownership is a social good: while work creates wealth, wealth also creates jobs.
Austrian economists recognized the flaws in Marx's thinking. Austrian economists observed that value is subjective, as Smith intuited but could not fully explain (“Diamond and Water Paradox” And the value of a good or service is determined by its marginal utility, or “the additional satisfaction or benefit (utility) a consumer derives from purchasing an additional good or service,” says Brittanica.com. Put it.
The key concept here is “utility,” which refers to all the “satisfaction or benefit” one gets from a product or service, not just the actual return on expenditure. Thus, the theory is applicable to both productive activities and consumer expenditures. It also takes into account any contribution to value, regardless of its source.
These improvements allow us to understand the true value of human labor and fully appreciate its importance in the human endeavor. All wealth comes from labor. All labor is spent on property. Of course, this includes “intellectual property.” Without property, there would be nothing to spend labor on and nothing to consume. The human race would become extinct.
Animals also work to get food and instinctively use the “properties” around them (plants, other animals, water, etc.) just like plants and all other living things. Work is essential to life.
Marx's fallacy of valuing labor to the exclusion of all other factors leads his followers to see humans as no different from animals. As nearly two centuries of history have shown, Marxism produces an irresistible urge to despise property owners. They “don't work,” Marxists claim. According to Marxist theory, property owners are parasites. Communist governments often resort to extreme measures to eliminate property owners. Clark and Chinese rural landlords in the mid-20th century — and justify it by dehumanizing them.
The claim that property owners do not work is false and immoral. Even though property owners do nothing other than create goods and services, they have the important job of directing human effort toward activities that best enhance human welfare. Property owners do this because they naturally seek to maximize the value of their possessions, and they increase their own wealth by focusing on what others value most. This strategy is successful because providing people with what they most want produces the highest profits.
Adam Smith's observations about butchers, brewers and bakers apply equally to property owners: just as we receive our meals from food merchants through “the consideration of their interests,” so we respond to their interests by paying for their goods, and so we receive capital by serving the interests of its owners.
This system is highly profitable. Asset owners try to maximize the value of their assets and use them in the most rewarding way. If consuming the asset gives the owner the greatest satisfaction, they will do so. If selling the asset, using it in a wealth-generating activity such as a business, or saving it for future use will bring them greater profits, they will choose that option.
Of course, this may seem like an easy job, and it may be. I don't have the wealth to know from experience. But value is measured not by the amount of effort put into something, but by the quantity and quality of satisfaction the end product or service brings. If you put a ton of effort into stacking the stones, but no one benefits from it, then you're not making much money from it.
The ownership of property is a social good: work creates wealth, but wealth also creates work. Property owners, because they benefit from doing so, direct work toward the resources and activities that will best enhance human welfare.
Marxists and the American left argue that ownership of property is unnecessary for the production of goods and services and prevents the fair distribution of wealth. But the government enforces this so-called fair distribution by forcibly taking property from some people and giving it to others. This practice undermines a pillar of human achievement: it rewards people who benefit without working, disincentivizes the production of goods and services, deprives people of using their property in socially beneficial ways, and reduces our ability to create wealth.
With Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposing a national wealth tax, now is a critical time to understand, acknowledge, and share the truth that owning property is a social good and, in fact, the foundation of the value of all human labor. As we celebrate the work of our neighbors across the country, we should also recognize the great and important work that property owners are doing.
