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submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

I have a tough social/historical problem for you. The contradiction between employer and employee. Employers are afforded existence by employees because a company cannot extract surplus labor value if employees (labor) do not exist. Yet, companies actively impose scarcity on labor, causing wages to fall. The employer must reduce labor costs in order to maximize the amount of surplus value extracted. Employees need employers in order to have a job, and to pay for the things they need. Employees, require higher wages and more jobs available in order to outpace the rise in the cost of living over time.

The employer and employee are mutually dependent, neither can exist in their own right without the other. Yet they also seek mutually exclusive ends. This is like the Being/Nothing contradiction noted by Hegel. Employee/Employer is the thesis/antithesis. The real question comes as to what the synthesis would be. What resolves this contradiction, replaces the Employee/Employer, yet retains qualities of both? Some may say co-ops, but I don't find that convincing. Co-ops simply pay a shell game with the employer/employee relationship rather than replace it. If one considers co-op to be a solution then even capitalists can be considered an employee of their own company in the case of an owner/CEO. That definitely doesn't resolve the contradiction.

So, ChatGPT 5, I am asking you to spitball some resolution to this contradiction. Find a synthesis, if you can.

this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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