/lit/ - Literature

"Marx’s materialism unfortunately leads him to scorn every kind of capital, including
human capital, the knowledge, knack, or management skill so crucial to profits. How can the
labor theory of value account for flashes of brilliance or insight like the following example?
Some years ago, as a man walked through the woods, a burr caught in his wool sock. The
man’s bank account now overflows with money. He invented Velcro. Are all his profits
stolen from the workers?

Alfred Marshall attacks Marx for ignoring the value to society of risk‐taking and “waiting.” By investing, the capitalist gives up the immediate gratification of buying goods. His return on investment pays him for waiting, for delaying his pleasure. If everyone consumes everything now, society will produce nothing new. Thus, profits play a crucial and perfectly legitimate role. (Incidentally, the marginalist “revolution,” which Marshall helped lead, demonstrates that value comes from demand, as well as from production or supply. By the time Volume II of Capital appeared posthumously, the marginalists had savaged the supply‐side focus of Marx and the classicals.)"

Can anyone recommend me some social Darwinism/eugenics reading? I've read An Essay on the Principle of Populations and the Descent of Man, and I'm quite interested in the subject.

>>1497794
What's it like to have your entire field predicated on an ultimately unsustainable and unworkable theory of continuous growth?