Imagine having your entire worldview destroyed by a ragecomic. Labour theory of value DESTROYED with FACTS AND LOGIC
There's a knock at your door. When you open it, you see a somber man in a pressed chapo dot chat uniform, hat in hand. A pit forms in your stomach as he begins to speak.
"Ma'am, I'm... I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your large adult son-"
"Oh no"
"He's... he's been owned."
spoiler
:large-adult-son: :sadness:
I don't understand what is supposed to be happening here and the troll faces annoy me. Someone explain.
They both start with $20, and there's a box, and one trollface sells the box to the other trollface for $30. So then in the third panel, as you can plainly see, the trollface on the left has $50, represented by a green smudge, and the other trollface has $10 of debt, represented by a nearly identical green smudge. They both shout "Infinite money!" because they think the creation of debt -- a system of promised future servitude enforced by state violence -- is equivalent to both of them ending up with more money.
"Problem?" it says next to a trollface, indicating ironically that this transaction is actually not problematic.
Ok so there is debt involved, almost makes sense now. Why is this so confusingly made lol
Didnt they destroy value by getting something worth a combined $40 for $30? Or someone is out $50 for buying a box they threw $20 in for $30?
Is capitalism someone stealing value from me and calling it investment?
I remember seeing this when I was 12 or something and I don't think I found the flaw
Guy on the right spends a total of $50 to get the box with $40
Yeah you have to forget about the guy on the right's 20 from the first frame for it to seemingly work
But you see, debt creation and financial trickery are actually value creators!
This doesnt change the total amount of money in a society, just moves it around, so it doesnt explain how value is created