Political Memes

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"

In some language, possibly.

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.

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?

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.

What makes you think the majority of Foss Devs are paid for their work?

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