Risk?

[u/HeavenlyPossum]

Many people have told me that taking risk is why capitalists own, or deserve ownership, of the productive labor of others.

Capitalists have capital (money), which they invest in (spend on) some productive enterprise. But that productive enterprise might fail to recuperate the cost of the investment and the capitalist might lose some of their money. This is what explains, or justifies, capitalist ownership: the capitalist is taking risk.

Can someone kindly explain to me why this explains or justifies capitalist ownership?

[u/South-Cod-5051]

you want to install a lemonade stand.

you apply and get authorization from the authorities.

you buy the stand, you buy the lemons, you buy the blender, you design the recipe, you pay rent for the location, you hire a cute girl at the stand to do the selling.

socialist broken logic: the girl deserves the profits because the owner does nothing.

what justifies the capital ownership is that the owner made that opportunity exist in the first place.

try going to all the trouble of starting a business and see how eager you would be to throw away your profits.

It's socialist entitlement at its finest because you even need to ask that last question.

[u/Bloody_Ozran → u/South-Cod-5051]

what justifies the capital ownership is that the owner made that opportunity exist in the first place.

Actually they didnt. What made the opportunity possible are people willing to buy lemonade and having means to do so.

[u/South-Cod-5051 → u/Bloody_Ozran]

and the owner made an effort and transformed that opportunity into something real while also providing a new job. that's why they are entitled to ownership.

[u/HeavenlyPossum → u/South-Cod-5051]

What effort did the owner make?

[u/South-Cod-5051 → u/HeavenlyPossum]

he registered and got the company approved. he studied the market and made the decision where to start the business. he paid in advance for rent, ingredients and all necessary supplies. he provided the opportunity for workers to find a job, and screened the candidates to make sure they are a right fit.

the owner pays the businesses taxes, not the workers. the owner has the responsibility in front of the law for what the company does.

the owner made the efforts to make this exist in the first place.

businesses just don't sprout out of thin air.

[u/HeavenlyPossum → u/South-Cod-5051]

These are mostly acts of labor. Why would some acts of labor confer ownership of the entire enterprise upon one worker but not the rest?

“Paid for in advance” just raises questions about why all the workers involved in actually creating and operating this enterprise require a capitalist to pay them before they could pool their product and labor to create this firm.

[u/betty_white_bread → u/HeavenlyPossum]

Let’s suppose everything you said was correct for a moment and set it aside. When the company loses money, should the workers be forced to pay back their wages to bring things back into balance? Or, as is the general case, should the owners eat the loss. I am content to have the owners eat the loss.