Political Memes

And other ones are being paid by a big firm to work on FOSS projects because it's still easier than reproducing something from scratch.

Is that not somewhat the point though? They want to be doing meaningful work and they're so motivated to do meaningful work they'll sit after a day of work and chip out more code just so they can do something meaningful to them.

The difference is [the profit you make under socialism/communism] wouldn’t be at the expense of others

How is that possible? Isn't "profit" defined as value you get in excess of the value of the thing you traded for? Isn't profit "at the expense of others" by definition?

(not including the ones who do it to get their £1 coin back)

Or, rather, a huge percentage of the work done right now that we just don't classify as "work" under capitalism. Nearly all of us were literally raised with decades of effort stretched over long days, based on motivations that ran counter to personal "profit." As is with most care for the elderly and disabled, as further examples among many.

It was quite the propagandist coo that "work" was re-defined only as work paid for under capitalism, so therefore capitalism motivates all "work"

Funnily enough, the less someone wants to do it the more of that “incentive” is purely stick and no carrot. Almost as if there’s something fishy about that whole notion 🤔

Unless… people actually prefer to be garbage men over the grueling work of an investment banker?

Income/ revenue is not the same as profit, just like a meat patty is not a hamburger.

Socially acceptable to use interchangeably and even a dictionary might call them synonyms but they're not.

Yes volunteer firefighters are paid for their time when responding to an emergency but no one else is making money off the firefighter or the equipment being deployed. We all pitch in through taxes and get a service in exchange, no one is enriched by it.

This seems like a post about UBI or a post scarcity society, and whether or not humans will be lazy/do nothing if they no longer need money.

So within that premise, those 3 things wouldn't necessarily have labor issues if people can have a good life regardless of what they're up to. I think a lot of people would want to spend time contributing to Wikipedia, FOSS, firefighting, etc. if they were compensated all the same. Similarly, if profit was no longer a concern, resources could be allocated to projects based on need, and so funding wouldn't be a factor.

It's fun to think about, and I think the post has value for what it's pointing out

BioHacking with local made open source pharma is already a thing. People are already volunteering to make medication for others.

Let's not exploit people either.

Even a Minecraft server requires a benefactor.

Can not speak for all firefighters but we have more applicants than we have spots. We currently need 100 for the municipality we work for and we have some 110 firefighters.

Not volunteers, per se, but my career has been 20+ years of vaccine and biologic discovery and manufacturing. All non-profit.

I like what I do, and I hate the people I work for.

IDK where I land for motivation.

I need a new job.

You're confusing two concepts. Even volunteer firefighters get paid, in the OP. But they don't operate under a profit motive.

The profit motive is seen as integral to the success of capitalism, in economic theory. The idea is that owners of capital will invest in ways that maximize the profit of their capital, and, in so doing, maximize the total value creation from the capital. Hence, the profit motive incentivizes everyone in capitalism to maximize total productivity. Therefore, the profit motive maximizes the gross economic production, and hence utility, of the entire system, even though individual agents are only pursuing selfish maximization of profits.

All of that is true. But it also doesn't tell the whole story.

In particular, it breaks down in two main points:

1. Externalities are not captured by the profit motive. Negative externalities, like pollution, but also positive ones, like companionship and happiness.
2. The profit motive is true for total creation of utility, but it completely ignores the distribution of utility. Neoliberal trickle-down free-market economic policy is inimical to equity, despite, on the surface, seeming like an effective policy to maximize total utility generation through the profit motive.

There's a whole other problem with the profit motive, too: we all have an innate drive toward creative expression and helping others. I suppose you could, cynically, say that these motivations count as "externalities", but I think that's a bit reductive. People will want to create things even without profit motive. UBI studies all confirm that people will want to continue "being productive", even if they don't need to work.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

Linux foundation doesn't operate under a profit motive AFAIK. Maintenance of operations doesnt equate the profit motive

Everyone needs money. But it's not a "profit motive" driving them to develop for FOSS. Most of them would get paid >2x their salary by working for top-tech. They are more motivated by passion.