the way i explain the labor theory of value to people is very simple. i don’t talk about commodities, commodity fetishism, proletarians, bourgeoisie, private property, the evolution of feudalism out of capitalism, hegelian dialectics or any of that complex historical materialist analysis that marx spends hundreds of pages building up before explaining worker exploitation. I cut straight to the chase.

I say these things, usually not all at once. I let people chew on each one:

• If you’re a boss, and you own a business, you have to pay the worker less than their work is worth.
• If you pay them exactly what their work is worth, you don’t make any money, your business won’t grow, and you’ll get bought out by some asshole who pays workers less.
• If you pay a worker more than their work is worth, you’re losing money, your business will shrink, and you’ll go out of business.
• the problem is the system, because the way the system is set up, workers have to beg for a job from people who own the places we work at, and the bosses only give the job to the lowest bidder, the people willing to do the most in exchange for the least in return.