People would still work for more money, but they would do it at a wage that was actually worth it, not just at a wage they can accept because their only other choice is to starve. The point isn’t to do away with all forms of compensation and contractual obligation, it’s to do away with a work-or-die system that thinks the noblest thing a man can do is break his back for a rich man’s table scraps. Pure capitalism leads to slavery, because it’s always better to become a slave than to starve, and market forces are fundamentally Darwinian. It’s the tragedy of the commons, except that the folks who bred more sheep than their share are living like kings, while the folks whose sheep got squeezed out settle for tending the flock to get by day-to-day.
I’m not even sure what to make of this statement other than to point out that it both has nothing to do with what I said, and appears to lack any understanding of what serfs or guilds were. Rather than rant about that appearance, I’ll just invite you to explain your comment in more detail, and instead respond with some clarification of my own point:
We tried pure capitalism. It was awesome while there were places to conquer and pillage, but as that got harder and harder, it led to the Roman Empire, which became corrupt, began manipulating the economy to serve the uber-wealthy elite, and eventually collapsed and mostly flattened the economy in (most of) the West. We tried pure capitalism again. It was awesome while there were places to conquer and pillage, but as that harder and harder, it led to Monarchy, which became corrupt, directly manipulated the economy to create an uber-wealthy elite, and led to the French Revolution, which beheaded a significant fraction of the wealthiest people in the world and redistributed their wealth (to some). We tried another spin on pure capitalism: industrial democracy. It was great as long as there were new ways to reduce household labor, new natural resources to exploit, and ever-faster ways to transport goods around the world, but as those things became harder and harder to come by, it stagnated and led to two World Wars, which destroyed a significant portion of the wealth of the world. We fought a long ideological war over whether it made sense to try capitalism again. In the end we settled on it again, because it’s really great while there are ever-better ways of saving labor and improving communication through computers and the internet, but as that got harder and harder, it led to the rise of Kleptocracy, which is fundamentally corrupt, directly manipulates the economy to create an uber-wealthy elite, and is pushing us to yet another disconnect where the masses will have no recourse but violence to reset the economy. Maybe, instead of violence, this time we can reset by realizing that property rights don’t entitle you to profit from suffering, bankrolling a great idea doesn’t require an aristocrat with a pile of ready cash and doesn’t need to create new ones, and the American dream isn’t about owning the biggest yacht or Goopiest Egg, it’s about be mostly happy with who you’re with, where you live, what you do, and how you are paid.
