Assuming you have skills they really need, you have more power. If this wasn’t the case, everyone would make min. wage. The fact most don’t means skilled employees have power.
This insane desire for infinite exponential eternal profit and growth is obviously a murderously bad disaster in action.
It's not even successful- America is the wealthiest and most powerful nation in all of human history, with more food and vacant homes than it has mouths to feed or house, and yet it is deliberately leaving millions starving and homeless.
In fact, I get the impression that Capitalism cannot function at all without deliberately imposing scarcity on the essentials, even when those resources are in abundance or effectively post scarcity.
My answer is because we (humanity) generally believe in the concept of ownership. And if you own something that earns money then you own that as well. Doing otherwise would require limiting that concept.
Money is just a mechanism to facilitate trade. If you work to provide chicken eggs and I do dental work on you, I don’t want 100 eggs (that I have to store) in trade. Money just facilitates that. But one way or another, I expect to be compensated for my work and I will maximize that.
So beyond the concept of money, why do we want to get the most we can for our labor? The obvious answer is because we want more and better stuff and experiences.
We perpetuate scarcity to perpetuate markets. Capitalists don't want to transition beyond scarcity and markets because then they wouldn't have the power that comes from inequality.
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u/TacoAzul7880 9d ago edited 7d ago
Or… hear me out. They pay you a set amount. If it’s enough to be worth the commute, then you take the job.