Bus 105 1st Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture II Thoreau Economy from Walden A Materialism B Desperation C Productiveness III Woodsworth The World Is Too Much With Us A Nature Outline of Current Lecture IV Plato from The Republic A Efficiency B Retailer C Ideal State V Aristotle from The Politics A Money used for household management B Money used to make money C Proper use of things D Improper use of things VI Marx Capitalist Production from Das Kapital A Use Values B Exchange Values Current Lecture Plato Plato documented the conversations Socrates had with his disciples Plato talks about a shepherd who finds a body with a ring on its finger and he takes the ring off the corpse Eventually this man comes to realize that the ring has the ability to make you invisible This man conspires with the queen in order to kill the king and take over the kingdom This brings into question whether or not it s immoral to do bad things when one is invisible Do laws define morality Morality is basically standardization It comes down to what we agree is moral and immoral Laws are covenants we make that we ll not commit injuries These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Some view industrialization as the need for greater efficiency which results in coming together so that we don t have to do everything by ourselves Specialization is the key to efficiency Efficiency Defined as a relationship It s a relationship between inputs and outputs The cost will remain the same but one will produce more By dividing tasks of society into smaller and smaller pieces we increase efficiency and everyone benefits which results in more wealth With more time one produces more If a community expands then they need to increase efficiency to feed everyone This may be a problem is more is produced and there are not enough additional supplies The more a community specializes the more the economy is able to expand Retailer Someone who buys from producers sits in one place and sells to consumers They sell producers products This may be seen as a problem because retailers don t change the goods but they make a profit off of them They buy low and sell high Plato agrees that we need retailers but he dislikes them Unfortunately Plato is unable to see that retailers provide convenience He views it as making a profit at the expense of the producers and consumers Retailers aka middlemen maximize the efficiency of producers and consumers Ideal state A state where everyone is pleased because they all have what they need and don t desire more The producers produce enough This is known as equilibrium where supply and demand are equal Sadly we don t live in an ideal state because people always want more which leads producers to make more In this society there is lack of justice In Ancient Greece Athens Thebes Sparta etc they lived in an agrarian society In order to produce more one must expand land which leads to conflict over land war Nowadays corporations fight over market share customers and this is global warfare Companies want to sell to customers on a global scale In the U S it is against the law to bribe foreign companies but this is completely legal for other countries In order for the U S to compete in the global market on a level playing field they must put on the ring of invisibility Aristotle Men are content with living but not with living well What is the purpose of money It s easy to carry around convenient Facilities exchange In other words it s a medium for exchange Paper is the most common because it s lighter than metal and less expensive for the government to make He refers to bartering as barbarous How much money do we need We have money for two main reasons 1 Make money for household management This is viwed as natural and necessary 2 Making money for the sake of making money This is viwed as unnatural Hoarding money is unnatural to him He thinks it should be used for economic transactions not to be hoarded There is also a nature of things This includes the proper and improper use of things For example Shoes are meant to be worn and this would classify as their proper use But shoes may also be sold or exchanged and this is their improper use purpose is to make money off of them But an improper use of something does not indicate that s it s negative When something is being used improperly what is one exchanging or selling it for One can sell trade it for something one doesn t need or for something they do If one uses something improperly for food they are going to eat which happens to be the proper use of food then it s acceptable One would improperly use something in order to get money for food and this happens to be natural If something is used in an improper manner as a way to buy luxurious goods it is unnatural In other words if the purpose is to obtain unnecessary things it s unnatural Natural positive Unnatural negative Our desires as humans are unlimited but our needs are finite Aristotle also dislikes retailers because he views their purpose as accumulating coin only This is unnatural because their only purpose is to make money This is because during his time usury was looked down upon because usury is the birth of money from money Now usury means excessive chargesof interest The function of money is to be used in exchange but not with too high interest For Aristotle all interest is usury Marx compared to Aristotle To Marx all things are use values which is something you need that requires effort He doesn t relate it to exchangeability but to usefulness This is viewed as the proper use Things also have an exchange value For example shoes may be exchanged for something Exchange value Work to make something that has value in order to sell it and buy other things It s the units of human labor in use value that determine its value not the amount of time put into the work 1 Obtain natural resources 2 Convert them to something 3 Harvest