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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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