Why do so many people still buy into the ?labor theory of value,? a basic tenet of Marxist thought that suggests the value of a commodity is tied to the number of labor hours needed to produce it? (Does that mean my work would be more valuable if I stretched a three-hour project into a three-week project?)
It?s the type of misguided notion that has led to the deification of the unskilled laborer and the demonization of the entrepreneur who seems to do little to earn his keep.
Newsweek?s Julia Baird seems to buy into this mode of thinking in her latest column:
[Gandhi?s seven social] sins are all still relevant, but two seem particularly prescient in a country winded by a recession: wealth without work and commerce without morality. When did we come to expect money could be made?infinitely and effortlessly?by a kind of opaque algorithmic magic? As Jon Stewart asked of Jim Cramer last year, “Any time you sell people the idea that, sit back and you’ll get 10 to 20 percent on your money, don’t you always know that that’s going to be a lie? When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work?”
Fortunately, the business world features people with better insights than Ms. Baird and Mr. Stewart ? people who understand the entrepreneur?s critical role in the economy.
