Economics By Marx. Groucho Marx.
Jon Miltimore writes at FEE that a socialist-themed vegan "meat" company has discovered that Marxism works better in theory than practice.
No Evil Foods, a "revolutionary" food company that champions progressive values, finds itself in a bitter labor dispute....With products like Comrade Cluck (a plant meat, not actual chicken), No Evil Foods has had success casting itself as a "revolutionary" food company that embodies progressive values.
But the company is learning marketing progressive ideas is easier than implementing socialist-style economics.
For months, company leaders have been resisting a unionization effort by workers at their Weaverville, North Carolina plant.
...When Economic Reality Collides With Ideals
...One of the ways unions hurt labor is they actually decrease overall wages. Economists have long pointed out that wages are tied to productivity.
As Milton Friedman has observed, in a free market wage growth comes from increased productivity and greater capital investment. Artificially raised wages--either by labor unions or minimum wage--can only come at the expense of other workers who find their opportunities reduced.
...Are Woliansky and Schadel (the owners) familiar with the economic theories of Friedman and Reisman? Perhaps not.
But as business owners they likely are keenly aware that raising wages without increasing productivity would result in a loss of workers, less production, and less capital investment.
The Marxist theory of labor rejects all of this, of course. In his seminal work Capital (1867), Marx explained his theory: a commodity's value can be measured simply by breaking down the number of hours it takes to produce.
If it takes twice as long to produce an iPhone as an Apple Watch, then the iPhone is twice as valuable as the Apple Watch. Hence, the competitive price of an iPhone will be twice that of the Apple Watch, in the long run, regardless of the physical inputs required.
Marx's labor theory of value was debunked more than a century ago, of course. Yet his ideas live on.
It's unclear if the leaders of No Evil Foods or their workers would call themselves Marxists, but the showdown has all the marks of the endless struggle Marx saw between the bourgeois and the proletariat.
Unfortunately for the owners of No Evil Foods, they're learning the hard way that socialist principles are as problematic in practice as they are in theory.
This wasn't brought up, but No Evil Foods needs to die a horrible death. Not because of their anti-union stance, but just for what they promote.
Meat is what allowed us to evolve our large brains. The problem is that meat-eaters have become apathetic, and little by little, vegans are winning over our various local governments, and meat-eaters are not adequately pushing back.
We have politicians, such as Ocasio-Cortez and other supporters of the Green New Deal that vegan is the way to go, and our future is vegan. Vegans have convinced the world that meat is harmful, cholesterol is bad, etc.
Eggs, the yolk of which is among the most nutrient dense foods on the planet, are legally prohibited from being marketed as a health food, yet that's exactly what they are.
So, if your response to all this is, "Du-U-u-u-Uh. deY nOT FoRCE Me tO stOP eEtINg MeEt!" then all I can say is "Fuck you."
They are already doing this. Listen to these purveyors or chemical, plant-based, overpriced glop. They will tell you that they have every intention of having laws enacted to make meat illegal. And they have already persuaded our politicians that veganism is healthy, sustainable, and good for the planet (it is none of these things). Unless you wake the hell up and start countering this bad information, it will happen. Folding your arms and saying, "They can't make me!" is denial on steroids. They can, and they will.
Patrick at October 27, 2020 2:43 AM
Wait 'til they learn about that whole "workers should control the means of production" thing.
Not that employee ownership can't work. Publix makes it work pretty well; and the founding family makes millions with that arrangement.
Conan the Grammarian at October 27, 2020 4:47 AM
Unions not only raise wages within the company, which makes the company less competitive, the employees have to pay union dues which are not cheap.
The "workers own the means of production" thing is an option that companies can try (and there are some), but it rarely means what people think. It does not mean that a few junior employees can tell management how to run the business. It does not mean job security. In some such companies, employees get stock shares as they work and all shares are held internally, but this means it is hard to get cash our if you want to and if the company fails your entire "ownership" is gone. In Germany they have forced corp boards to have labor reps and they have found that this does NOT increase any measure of corp success (profits, productivity, etc). A direct democracy in a company with thousands of employees cannot work so there still will be bosses. So many nutty ideas, so little time.
cc at October 27, 2020 9:27 AM
Agreed. Publix is "employee owned," but it is not employee run. Still, the amount of fanatical employee loyalty they get from the ESOP and the quarterly dividend is amazing. You'd have a hard time unionizing Publix, whereas Kroger and most other large grocery chains are heavily unionized. And UFCW has tried many times to unionize the chain, failing in all of its attempts.
Conan the Grammarian at October 27, 2020 9:45 AM
"Hell Year" be damned: Youse guys be sure to send your personal checks to the game show host.
What were you going to buy, anyway? Food? Medicine? Warmth for the wintertime? YOUR HERO NEEDS YOU
Crid at October 27, 2020 12:30 PM
Okay, it was bogus… Still, speak up if you've given money to ANY candidate for national office this year.
Crid at October 27, 2020 7:53 PM
"...progressive values..." = meaningless noise.
It's right there with "progressive tax", which means, "you're going to pay more for nothing", and "market volatility", which means, "you lost money".
Radwaste at October 28, 2020 7:03 AM
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