Value added - division of labour - living state
Added value: Work-Nature and mind-work There is a value-creating part of economic life (production in the broadest sense) and a devaluing part (consumption/consumption). The value increases during production until it stands at the transition to consumption and then loses value until it becomes worthless. Consumption was caused by need. Value is caused by work, mental activity, price formation and consciousness. Value is a process when goods and services are created that are in demand. The creation of goods and services in order to maintain jobs or to find forms of investment for loan money1 is not a value-added process where they are not geared to the needs of customers. "... it depends on the economic relationship between buyer and seller", (B024,p.142). Because what seller and buyer can make out of money and goods, what they can use or process further, is what makes up the value-added process. Value creation happens today where the division of labour achieves a fruitful selfless cooperation of people. Division of labour The division of labour enables specialization and technical development of operations. However, this specialisation means that no one can work for themselves any more. Everyone works for the others. Because nobody can use what he produces for himself. Division of labour is the more successful the more each one does what he does for the others. Technically, the use of machines that can produce, for example, 100 shoes per hour is not reasonable for a self-supporter because he only needs, let's say, a few shoes per year. But by using one machine he can supply 25,000 people with a few shoes per year. The division of labour from today's technical point of view only makes sense if the individual human being can provide for the other human being. Division of labour triggers an organisation and automation of work, work is designed to be performed for many. A work, which is done by machine for 10.000th is more productive than work for a single person, therefore self-sufficiency is less productive than work for others. If I perform work for my fellow human beings, I can put my strength and abilities into this work, for my own good or for the good of the fellow human being who receives the fruits of my work. If I still want to be self-sufficient, I will arrange my work in such a way that it is more to my own advantage than to the recipient of my work. So I will see to it that the quality of the work does not have to be so special, that my earnings are particularly high and that my personal security is better than that of my surroundings. On the other hand, I can also decide to devote myself entirely to the work and its quality and need orientation, so that it is a real advantage for the receiver/consumer. In an economy based on the division of labour, the production of a good for personal use is the most complex and therefore most expensive way of producing goods. Because every activity based on the division of labour is carried out with greater concentration and mental modification. If a craftsman wants to produce a metal nail, he will need some tools, time and a raw material. The highly specialized industry based on the division of labor can produce such a nail in fractions of a second by using machines, through well-organized procurement and sales processes. This shows that in our world based on the division of labour, only those people who work for others can contribute economically to the common good. The division of labour begins in distribution, in trade, which, through its logistics and the forces at work, makes products cheaper. If a manufacturer wants to have cheaper products and bypasses the trade2 , this too ultimately leads to an increase in price (B157, 2.8.1922). All egoism runs counter to the present form of the division of labour. Because where it appears it does not want to do this "working for the other" and thus works against the overall welfare and, seen as a whole, also contributes to its own "poorer" becoming. To look for ways for "... modern economies, as no man has to take care of himself, but only of the others, and how in this way each individual is best cared for", (B024, 26.7.1922). This is a demand that arises from the legality of the division of labour. The division of labour becomes especially fruitful when we succeed in doing our work in selflessness, in compassion and love for the other. After all, it can only be based on mutual trust and gratitude, the other person also works for my benefit. The one who can guess the world and fate of the other also sees how his own behaviour towards his fellow human beings comes back to him. If we succeed in fraternity in shaping economic processes so that the benefits of our work will benefit our fellow human beings, then the recovery of the economic system will also benefit us. In the creation of goods and services, human beings put parts of the world together anew. We do not create in dead matter, but in the living, essential world. The mood of the soul and the state of mind in which we do this influences the essence of what we create. If we create out of love, we will be able to connect loving beings with our products, if we create out of selfishness or malice, we will be able to manifest resisting (e.g. elemental) beings in our products. Goods and services created out of love and compassion for the next person can then contribute to the christening of the future world. Technical and economically most advantageous division of labour is one side of the possible, through human beings individually, artistic creation the other side. The further a product goes into the realm of fashionable, aesthetic, artistic, the more the sense of the division of labour decreases. Economy in a living state (balance) The creation of beautiful buildings and works of art is also an expression of the state of the economy. Only where the economy is managed accordingly, the skills and space are available to create artistic and beautiful things. "These artistic buildings are only possible on the basis of a very specific economic situation... Where I find buildings of art, I can conclude that higher wages are paid", (B157, 31.7.1922). Human society requires a certain number of economically active people who together provide such a service that another number of people do not have to engage in any economic activity for their livelihood. In former village and town communities perhaps 100 farmers, craftsmen, etc. had to pay for a teacher, a priest and a town clerk. Through the spiritual work of these people who are released from physical activity, spiritual improvements such as technical, social, cultural developments can be found, which make it possible that increasingly less economically working people are necessary to feed a spiritually working person. But people must have a need for spiritual employment, otherwise they will not understand why they should have a priest, why they should have a teacher to make life possible with their work. "Spiritual needs are a basic requirement", (B024, 5.8.1922). Spiritually active people bring about for those who are economically active, that they can experience the fruits of the spiritual life, the fruits of the spiritual creation. Spiritual work will, therefore, be able to take place all the more where the economically active people are moved from the experience of this spiritual work to take physical work from the spiritual worker. "Wherever spiritual work is concerned, we get everywhere, if we want to find the concept of values, the other concept, the concept of saved work, the work that is saved. (B024, 5.8.1922). If the artist depicts the spiritual in his pictorial work of art, we cannot express this with an economic value. From an economic point of view, it is the value to what extent the artist saves himself economic work through his artistic work. For another, namely the economically working person must carry out work that the spiritually working person would otherwise have to do himself. The intellectual worker makes additional work for the economically working one. If today, therefore, the productivity of economic work through the use of machines is increasing all the time, the extent of intellectual work must also increase in order to maintain a balance of values. If only the productivity but not the intellectual labour increases, the goods lose value. But spiritual work also has to be spiritual, to bring something spiritual to men. Today the increase in productivity removes many people from the economic processes, but they do not find intellectual work possible for them, they become inactive people3 without a task, neither physical nor intellectual work is possible for them, this is one of the dramas of our time. An increase in productivity must therefore be accompanied by an increase in intellectual work. Less and less work is needed to transform nature, more and more work is needed to find meaningful work, and at the same time to limit the amount of personal and social work. To keep the production of unnecessary goods low. "If one were to think economically soundly, one would have to spend a colossal amount of intelligence... in order to utilize the resulting excess work time for those people who cannot do anything themselves", (B157, 1.8.1922). Nature * Work = value and spirit - Work = value that would read formula-converted: value = nature * work + work - spirit That would then look like this (B024, 5.8.1922) the intellectual work is thus negatively inserted into the economic process. If we were to connect completely with the spiritual and no longer with the economic, our 100% spiritual work would make the economic work disappear (Luciferian temptation). If we were to accept 100% physical work only, we would no longer want anything spiritual (Ahriman temptation). A balance should always be found between economic and spiritual work. But it must also be understood in a technical sense what economic work is and it must be understood in a spiritual-scientific sense what spiritual work is. "If, therefore, ..., culture is progressing, then intellectual work is becoming more and more important", (B024, 5.8.1922). If this does not succeed, there is arbitrary activity in so-called art and culture (fun/event culture) or in the use of these surpluses for military, police and secret service apparatuses. "You have to characterize what influence it has on the economic life of an area, whether it has a hundred excellent painters or only ten", (B157, 30.7.1922). Income All money flows of an economic system are either for internal performance and settlement (loan capital sphere) or flow as income to the people involved. If the consumer buys a coffee in a coffee house, the following are paid from the purchase price: the services of the waitress, the cleaner, the management, a company lawyer, the tax official and all other civil servants, church members, transporters, packaging manufacturers, construction workers, agricultural workers, etc. In this way, one gets in contact with an almost uncountable number of people, no money paid for a good goes into a money account, a purse and stays there, all money goes in the big economic cycle, at some point to a person or into capital (meaningful investments) and people can then use this money for their own consumption of goods or an activity. Today, income is often based on working hours, monopoly situations, pragmatisation, state transfer payments and from legal claims or financial income. This system leads to uncertainty, inefficiency, administrative burdens, developmental obstacles, ambiguity and injustice. However, the income of the people, which then also enables consumption/usage, depends on the economic conditions and personal abilities, the state of nature and the legal and social circumstances. Only an economy which is able to produce so many goods, services and capital (machines, plants, enterprises, ...) that not all people have to deal with the creation of value (this was formerly the economy of scarcity), can develop to be able to offer as many people as possible free space for free time or for intellectual/social/cultural development. In the sense that the economy represents the volume of consumable goods, income cannot be directly related to working time, but only to the production of consumer goods. "In a healthy social organism it must be evident that work cannot be paid", (B179, "II. The real solutions to social questions and necessities demanded by life"). To be seen in a context of value creation and a social agreement, concerning a basic service and individual responsibility and performance. Working time is often placed in a direct connection with income. But let's take the example of a designer/artist who can often work on an idea/work for days, months, years and in this time does not earn any sales revenue for his work. A machine operator is different, he can produce thousands of goods by pressing one (start) button. To find a solution to the question of income from working hours in a field of working hours and revenues is a pointless and impossible desire. The continuous attempt to link working time with income leads to disturbances in the economic system. Income is related to the cultural cost of living, the economic system's ability to create value and personal economic performance4. The goal of income is a fair and reasonable distribution of the total consumer goods produced, taking into account the willingness to work and social connections. Where the quantity of consumption can apply, the quantity of income (real or used) is also the average, and the greater the number of people whose income is close to the average income, the healthier an economic organism is. Whoever creates goods through his work is part of the value-added cycle. He is usually an employee in a company or freelance worker associated with companies. But we cannot talk about an income that can or will be paid for working hours. Rather, entrepreneurs buy the value of the goods created. "... the result of his work is sold to the entrepreneur and also paid for, ...", (B024, 31.7.1922). In order to process these goods further and to be able to resell them through their larger structures. Thus the income is formed from the added value of the individual, which results from the price the entrepreneur pays for it. If the remuneration is predominantly based on the sales proceeds (e.g. turnover, contribution margin, etc.) of the enterprise, then the employee is encouraged to see his performance in relation to the success of the enterprise. Organize the work in the direction of personal income increase. Working for himself, for his livelihood. This remuneration technique runs counter to economic reality. Lack of selflessness leads to distortion of work, price and income. The stock exchange trader of a bank is not bought by the company for his value-added service, but for his contribution to the bank's profit. He is thus required not to sell useful goods or services of the bank, but to make profits at its expense with a high risk. In this way he increases his bonuses (income) and often makes unexpectedly high losses. Whoever carries out the work with the aim of obtaining income, turns away from the principle of division of labour, acts against it, because he wants to provide mainly for himself. If people are not remunerated according to their share in economic performance, they cannot demand the goods they need in the appropriate amount and the economic balance is disturbed. Saving and rationalisation not to make processes more economic, but to give individuals less of the proceeds of economic activity, leads to a reduction in the supply of consumption money for goods and thus to damage to the economic system (shutting down of plants/value-added facilities). If consumers do not want to or cannot offer a sufficient amount of money for the goods on offer (see do not want to or cannot pay the necessary prices), their prices fall. Only lower profits can be made, so less capital and loan money is created, the ability to create value decreases. If prices continue to be too low, the ability to form capital, to invest in machinery and equipment, to carry out research and development is reduced. People slowly become impoverished. The capital goods industry (but also basic research) is therefore under pressure to avoid costs that do not bring immediate benefits to consumers. Development activity, however, has the characteristic of bringing benefits not directly, but in the medium or long term. Thus, expenses for developments and new products are no longer paid. However, a decline in the possibilities of further or new development of value-added capabilities (machines) leads to a creeping impoverishment of the entire system (lack of new investments). The employee of a company produces a product, a good, a service, a new organizational or technological solution. The entrepreneur takes these goods from him and combines them with other goods in order to exchange them for the goods of other entrepreneurs. The employee can therefore only expect the same value for his or her goods as the consumer or business partner is prepared to give. If the employee's payment is above the attainable value, the employee achieves a higher profit than the company. If it is below the attainable value, the company will have the higher profit. If the remuneration is above the total economic performance share of the human being, he/she has the profit at the expense of the general public, if it is below that, the general public has the profit at the expense of the employee, if all parties involved waive part of their income, the resulting surplus can be used as loan money or distributed as gift money at the end of a business period. Thus the remuneration of an employee is to be seen on the one hand in relation to the total economic performance of the general public and on the other hand resulting from the goods he produces and how far they meet the needs of the consumers, who are then already exchanging values for them. Due to the limited amount of money the consumer has at his disposal, there is a price pressure on the goods. Therefore a price of goods and working time dependent remuneration always causes a pressure on the reduction of income, an extension of working time and a mechanical replacement of human labour. Income can be assigned to three different areas. There is an income share (a) for the general basic provision of consumption and basic economy; (b) an income for bearing responsibility; (c) an income for economic services: a) A basic income borne by the community: Orientation towards a cultural minimum necessary for life. What income is necessary in the present time and place for housing, food, clothing, basic services (heating, water, electricity), information and culture. From the economic state of the enterprise/society, each person connected with the respective organisation therefore receives a basic income, in awareness of the responsibility for the other. Each person also has responsibility for the others. This creates a certain freedom for all people involved to shape their lives b) Task-related income: An income which is determined by the task which is responsible within a company/organisation. This can be seen under the aspects of the field of responsibility (hierarchy), the technical/professional, organizational, social ability and task. The legal area of an organisation requires the independent search for and realisation of a state of balance and justice corresponding to the current state of affairs. It will therefore depend very much on the extent to which the responsible person will be able to let his self, his moral impulses flow into the requirements. c) Value-added related income: From the working or organizing activity, goods and commodities are produced that meet the needs of the customers. The income is determined by the values and added values created by the individual. Today's technical value-added capabilities have turned what was once a shortage into a "theoretical "5 surplus economy. Due to various disruptions, this surplus has not yet become fully conscious. The technical and organisational capabilities are progressing and reducing the number of jobs directly necessary for the creation of value. At the same time, government programs are trying to force unemployed people into jobs that have been rationalized away and to encourage companies to create jobs for products that nobody needs. The widespread scientific view of the world, believes man is descended from animals. Then one also believes that man must be encouraged, educated or forced to work. Such thoughts give rise to work pressure and job retention programmes. If one considers the advantages of the situation that we have created for ourselves today, the freedom that allows many people to be economically active at a certain point in time and to pursue other legal/social or intellectual/artistic activities, then this too should lead to a rethink of the way in which income is distributed. The value added of consumable goods and services generated by the entire economic system under consideration is directly related to the total disposable income of this system. In future, this relationship between income and value added should be consciously managed. For the income of the people within an economic system can only be to the extent that it has a counterpart in the produced and available goods, goods and services. Neither can people as a whole have less income as available consideration nor more income6. If income levels and economic performance are not in equilibrium, prices in general, the economic system is disrupted. If stock exchange speculators earn billions of dollars for their machinations and at the same time millions of people starve to death, then an economic system is not in equilibrium. Income is not a question of education, inheritance, working hours, local economic success, but a question of the totality of people in a society that is part of the global economic system. In addition to existing global world production, world trade and the world financial system, there must therefore also be a global world income system. Everyone must have at least an income that corresponds to the maintenance of a cultural minimum. This is then also a natural lower limit of value of every economic activity (B179, 5.8.1922). The value of the money arises in the area of the creation of consumer goods, goes into the lending area and dies into the gift. Whatever consumer goods go back into nature is related to the gift money area. It is pure consumption. The reason why this disposing of the consumption money can never be other than a gift (see main social law). We all receive from us as a community of people the money for the purchase of consumer goods as a gift (no matter what title this source of funds has). Consumption money in this area of dissolution into nature is thus money given as a gift. Today many activities are taken over by machines and computers. This means that it is no longer necessary for all people to produce goods and services in order to cover the consumption of all, but as consumers they should continue to be provided with a sufficient amount of money. Therefore, due to changed technical and organizational conditions, a new way must be found to provide all people with a fair and appropriate income. If work were better organised, i.e. if working time were to be used for the production of goods according to needs and less for personal benefit (income, career), a reduction in working time would also occur in addition to technical rationalisation. There comes the great challenge to society's task of finding activities for all people who can no longer find work in manufacturing. "If one were to think in terms of economic health, one would have to spend a colossal amount of intelligence on this ... in order to utilize the resulting surplus working time for those people who cannot find work themselves", (B157, 1.8.1922). If it is not possible to counteract the pressure to reduce prices exerted by consumers, there is a danger that too little income will remain for those involved in the production or development of value-added plants. That the desire to pay as little as possible for the goods leads to a loss of income, quality and development capacity. There is no fixed point of reference in the economic system from which the price and value of goods can be determined, these are determined at the time of the transfer of goods and payments, their relationship to price and value added results in the overall economic relationship, so the wage of an employee cannot be determined between the employee and the entrepreneur alone, but only in relation to the overall economic situation and the achievable value of goods. The entrepreneur cannot pay for the work of the employee because it cannot be brought into a relationship, he can only buy the product of his work. The employee is himself an entrepreneur, he creates something and sells something; how successful this product is, how successful he is, is his company to which he belongs and his economic system. "The worker produces something directly, the worker supplies a product; and this product is actually bought by the entrepreneur." (B024, 30.7.1922). A value is created by the exchange of economic products, a value is only given for one's actions if this action finds a person who wants to exchange his own action for this action. For example, a time-dependent remuneration leads to a distance from the needs of the customers, because their needs are no longer decisive for the orientation of the work. "...in the salary relationship we are actually dealing with a purchase...", (B024, 30.7.1922), "... nowhere is work paid, only the results of work are paid...", (B024, 31.7.1922) Today mankind would already have the ability to create value (surplus economy) to supply all people sufficiently with goods. In order to guarantee this, all people would have to have a disposable income that enables them to buy these goods. Income is therefore something like the foundation of the economy to which it must be oriented. Income must not fall below a certain lower limit. This directly results in the regulation of meaningful economic activity and wealth distribution. Artistic and cultural fertility will produce the most beautiful and largest areas where people live who are able to spend money on art and culture. "Where I find buildings of art, I can conclude that higher wages are paid there than where I do not find buildings of art", (B157, 31.7.1922) Anyone who wants to promote art and culture should therefore also have the aim of providing people with a high income. It is the technical and intellectual abilities of people that can produce ever better and more beautiful goods, goods, services, works and works of art. The more people have high professional skills and a high disposable income, the greater the cultural achievements of such a community will be. "If one will apparently have more income than another, it will only be because the
will benefit the community because of his individual abilities." (B179, "III Capitalism and social ideas").
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