Louis
O. Kelso and Patricia Hetter
Kelso estimates of the
relative real inputs to
production in the
American economy of Labor
(Physical and Intellectual)
and Capital over time
assuming reasonably
competitive
markets. So ingrained is
the “ethic” of the “Labor
Theory of Value” that they
thought it best to refer to
Capital
Owners as “Capital Workers”
in keeping with their
understanding that Capital
instruments do “Work” - as
surely
as the most diligent human
surrogate worker – and that
indeed the observable trend
is for Capital Instruments
to do ever more of the
Worlds “Work”. The
reflexive prevalent attitude
of equating “Economic” man
with
Essential Human Values
including the whole vast
array of values around the
“Work Ethic” all contribute
to
camouflage and maintain the
fundamental miss-match
between the way goods and
services are produced
and distributed and
particularly their trends
projected into the future.
Cybernetic contributions
(now almost
exponential) are only adding
to the much longer
Historical trend. Represents
US Economy but applies to
World trending. HHC
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chart of concentration of
capital ownership in the
U.S. over time. The same
general pattern applies to
virtually all economies of
and the World Economy as a
whole – Plutocratic
ownership and control of the
real means of production.
With “The Labor Theory of
Value” it only worsens. HHC
- Below Quotes @
www.kelsoinstitute.org
"Conventional wisdom says
there is only one way to
earn a living, and that's to
work. Conventional wisdom
effectively
treats capital (land,
structures, machines, and
the like) as though it were
a kind of holy water that,
sprinkled on or about
labor, makes it more
productive. Thus, if you
have a thousand people
working in a factory and you
increase the design
and power of the machinery
so that one hundred men can
now do what a thousand did
before, conventional wisdom
says, 'Voila! The
productivity of the labor
has gone up 900 percent!' I
say 'hogwash.' All you've
done is wipe out 90
percent of the jobs, and
even the remaining ten
percent are probably sitting
around pushing buttons. What
the
economy needs is a way of
legitimately getting capital
ownership into the hands of
the people who now don't
have it."
(Louis O. Kelso, Journal
Asset Based Finance, 1982)
"The trouble with today's
techniques of finance is
that they're designed to
make the rich richer. None
are designed
to
make the poor richer. That's
why the poor are poor.
Because they're not rich."
(Louis O. Kelso, San
Francisco Examiner &
Chronicle, 1978)
"The Roman arena was
technically a level playing
field. But on one side were
the lions with all the
weapons, and on
the other the Christians
with all the blood. That's
not a level playing field.
That's a slaughter. And so
is putting people
into the economy without
equipping them with capital,
while equipping a tiny
handful of people with
hundreds and
thousands of times more than
they can use."
(Louis O. Kelso, Bill
Moyers: A World of Ideas,
1990)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Handy citing the
1930 reference by Lord John
Maynard Keynes projecting
“Technological Unemployment”
for the future world of his
grandchildren. That would
be right about now as
technological advancement
not only
provides the possible means
for Humanity’s collective
“Transcendence of Scarcity”
but poses the problem to
progressives by their
commitment (along with
virtually all economic
theorizing) to the “Labor
Theory of Value”
currently informing
virtually all National
Economies on Planet Earth &
the International System as
well. HHC
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