Economy: Nature-Work-Capital

Nature - Labour - Capital Nature Nature is the basis of the economy. Production, supply, sale and consumption of goods take place on land. Raw materials from nature are needed for each commodity. Everything flows back into nature at some point. The condition of nature, the availability of nature has a significant influence on economic activity. The availability of raw materials influences the production process. Production and distribution without land is unthinkable. The living quality of food has a significant influence on people's health. Economy destroys nature sustainably, cannot be maintained in the long run. From an economic point of view, it is not a question of nature, but of processed nature (B157, p.34). Work Economic work is where people do not provide for themselves, but for the social needs and requirements of their fellow human beings. That is, a good or service that is in demand and rewarded by a service in return (price). "Value-forming is the human work that changes a natural product in such a way that it can pass into the economic circulation process. (B024, 25.7.1922). Through labor, nature is directly transformed into an economic value. Through the mind, work is changed (modified) so that it meets the needs of consumers, i.e. it is transformed by the mind into an economic value. There are thus two forms of value formation or value creation. Nature is transformed by work or work is modified by the mind. "...which appears, as it were, through the interaction of nature and human labor... ...that is value on the one hand." (B024, 25.7.1922). Another side of value creation is the spirit that modifies labor to represent value. So, on the one hand, the transformation of nature into a commodity and, on the other hand, the organization and orientation of this transformation according to need. This then also shows the social reference of economic activity: What does the other person need, what can I do for him, what do I need myself to be able to do this? These are the value-adding activities. The price is formed in the sales process. The value of human labour cannot be derived directly from the value-creating activity. But only indirectly through the price formation. The income of all people connected with the production is also included in the price formation. Working time and income are therefore not directly related. What creates value is that which produces consumable goods and services in demand, a lot of work and spirit is today in economic contexts not used for value creation, but for personal advantage (e.g. career and competition). This means that we must free the concept of work from the economically useless, obstructive, damaging parts. "This concept must be freed from everything that is not value-creating in work, and that is not economically value-creating." (B157, 31.7.1922). Thus, work done without consumer need is also work without economic value. If something is created that no one needs, then the work may have been a task for the individual, but not of economic value. Even work areas in which unnecessary goods are produced, such as the armaments industry, are actually an employment policy that only destroys values economically. In the exceptional case of a war, the victor can in some way regard his armaments production as economically meaningful, for example because he has secured access to raw materials or markets. If a person is in the value-added process, he can create value for the entire system as long as he is healthy, if he is ill, for example, he cannot do so for the duration of his illness. If a doctor cures him, the value added that can now be created again as a result of the shortened illness is actually value added that the doctor has created. Thus, intellectual work (service professions) must be seen in the context of value creation, as they provide the environmental conditions and assistance for the people in the value-added process. "Therefore, no economic view is a real one that does not take into account what is achieved through mental work - if you want to call it that - but that means basically through thinking", (B024, p.87). This spiritual work also needs an environment that corresponds to it. Only there where something has already been created and is now consumed, degraded, there the spirit can appear. "We learn to understand the effectiveness of the spirit in the human organism only when we know that the spirit begins to work, when there are no processes of building up; when we know that there is not building up in the brain, but decomposition, and in decomposition only the spirit asserts itself", (B157, 1.8.1922). In the economic cycle we have work that creates and work that destroys. If people work spiritually, this part of their work is value-consuming, value-destroying. There can also be no economic cycle in which only creation is done. Everything would overflow with goods. The goods must also disappear again, return to nature so that a balance between consumption and production is created. Value destruction also takes place within value creation, e.g. when an intermediate product is dissolved for the production of an end product. So it is not about work "but about organized work;" (B157, 1.8.1922, P.34). Capital As soon as labour becomes independent from nature through the division of labour, capital1 is created. Whoever harvests apples for his own consumption and uses them for his own food has no room for manoeuvre with regard to the use of apples. Whoever harvests apples in large quantities for others has a certain degree of freedom of design through his distribution channels and types of trade. With the development of tools, machines, processes and economic organisations this freedom of design increases. This freedom, which has been created by the division of labour, is the capital of an economic area. A part of the work is not used for direct consumption, but for the improvement of the creation of value, thus creating capital. Auxiliary means such as tools, machines, vehicles, etc. are produced. In an economic system based on the division of labour, not all work that can be done is done directly for consumption. For example in mechanical engineering no consumer goods are produced, but with the produced machines consumer goods are produced. The work that is spent on building the machines is lost directly to the consumer. Only when the machine is used for the production of consumer goods does the work it does benefit the consumer. Capital is therefore created by diverting work and offers future value creation opportunities. As soon as division of labour occurs, work is no longer directly dictated by nature. There is a need to organize work through the mind. "So, mental labor is what occurs in the course of the division of labor." (B024, 27.7.1922). So capital always arises with the division of labour. Work is organized and thus emancipates itself from nature. Until a capital completely freed from nature is formed, which can then be freely used for new economic activities. The mind releases work from its dependence on nature, and the resulting free capital can then be freely used again by the mind in the economic process. We speak not only of capital "...but capital directed by the human spirit, set in motion, brought into economic motion", (B157, 1.8.1922, p.34). Capital thus arises, from the economic capacities of the past, but has no value for consumption; it acquires its value only through the sensible use of capital. "The first labor, through which capital was created, now has no economic value; economic value has only what the mind devotes to the utilization of money", (GA340, p.60). If the owner of the capital, the debtor (investor) gives his capital so that he can create value from this capital again by means of his ideas, then the capital will also have value again, he creates nothing, the capital disappears. The capital therefore has no value at all, unless someone uses it in an economically sensible way. The economic meaning of capital is that it can be collected and then passed on to where it can be used by economic ability (spirit). Capital is to be able to move in the economic cycle, it would not circulate, it loses value, it loses value, values are not created anew. So capital should go to those who have the ability to do something with it. Entrepreneurs can do something with it if the capital is left to them at reasonable economic conditions (repayment and interest) and for free entrepreneurial decisions. The necessary chapter is needed to realise new ideas that are intended to change and improve the value creation process. Thus, in the economic process, an intellectual creator will take out a personal loan to implement his ideas in order to be able to realize his ideas. He thus becomes a debtor. Whoever gives a loan can expect or forego a future consideration (interest) in return. A varying interest rate will deprive the creative person of part of his or her scope of capital to cover the cost of capital, thus leaving less room for manoeuvre than with a lower interest rate and leading to a reduced ability to increase the productivity of the economic system. Low interest rates thus lead to an improved ability to increase productivity, while high interest rates reduce this ability. Simply put, an increase in productivity then leads to cheaper, improved or new goods. Value is created through the application of work and spirit to the transformation of nature. Through consumption, this value disappears back into nature. If capital is not used, it disappears back into nature. Capital can be used economically fruitfully through individual ability and mental activity or it disappears. This disappearance can apparently be prevented by creating apparent values through the available capital. Apparent values are such values which in themselves do not represent any value in the economic cycle. A pseudo value is the storage of capital in land2. In this way, the previously available nature without economic value is transformed into a nature that has been transformed into a fictitious value through excess capital ("nature-priced capital formation"). So in this accumulation of capital in nature we have here a starting point for making the economic foundations more expensive (B024, p.73) and thus an impairment of the value-creating economic process. This is done by granting loans (real loans) for the purchase of land. If such a real estate loan is granted at a low interest rate, more capital can be invested (credited) in land and this leads to an increase in the price of land, while conversely a high interest rate leads to a lower amount of available capital for the purchase of land and this leads to a reduction in the price of land. So we have the fact that low interest rates make land more expensive and goods cheaper, high interest rates have the opposite effect. Capital is formed by the influence of the human mind in the work processes. If it is not used economically, it loses its value. But everything created in this way also loses its value when used sensibly, through wear and tear or obsolescence. So the capital associated with it must also disappear at the same time. Capital must be lost into nature, in a healthy economic process (B024, 28.7.1922). Unused capital must not be misdirected towards the apparent increase in value of land. The human spirit can now therefore use capital in an economically meaningful way, which can be understood as the Christian way (Mt 25:14-30). However, for fear of capital, it can also be retained by the owner, for example, by creeding it into the land. A rather ahrimanic way. It then retains a value that does not make economic sense and has a deteriorating effect on economic mobility and living conditions. There is then a constant increase in price, i.e. an apparent increase in the value of land, but from the point of view of the value creation process, land cannot increase in value (only the infrastructure on it can increase in value), so an increase in the value of land is a system-related apparent increase in value, in which capital not used for the economic process accumulates. The real economic process is not improved by increasing the amount of capital, but rather worsened, because money that is there for the living process is used for other purposes. On the other side of the possible use of capital is the illusionary increase of the amount of capital through stock exchange speculation, derivative transactions etc. Capital is formed by untrue reference to the economy. It follows the human weakness to want to earn as much as possible as quickly as possible. The imaginary capital formed in this way exceeds real economic activity by more than 100-1000 times. And brings about economic instability. A rather Luciferian use of capital. Capital is formed by the realistic action of the human spirit in the economy and is valuable when it is creatively applied by the human spirit in a value-creating way. It then loses its value. So ways must be found to keep capital in balance, i.e. surplus capital loses its value. In the Old Testament this is still described with the Jubilee Year, a way to heal the unfortunate effects of excessive growth of capital. (The book of Leviticus, chapter 25). "With a radical reduction of all debts, all economically harmful assets or capital will be lost." (B157, 5.8.1922). This deliberate, regular debt reduction is therefore one of the most urgent tasks of today's economic life in order to avert the most serious damage to the world economy. By using their minds, people have succeeded in producing machines, vehicles and equipment, thus reducing their direct dependence on nature. A bus that takes several people to a workplace solves the dependency on walking, but in the form of the bus it creates a freely available capital that can be used for more than just one transport. So it is the use of the mind to liberate from nature and to change work, the creation of working tools is therefore also the creation of movable capital. By using the spirit and work of nature, man creates devices that he can use more independently than nature in different places. These devices are also designed to replace and multiply human work (a man can make a nail in an hour, a machine can make a nail in 1/13 second). The devices available to us therefore increase the efficiency of mankind, this increased efficiency can then be passed on to the next people. Devices form the capital, which mankind has worked out so far, this capital is expressed in monetary values, capital is therefore in monetary value expressed ability of humans to produce changes in nature by means of devices. The peculiarity of nature disappears through work, through the use of the mind, the peculiarity of work gradually disappears, in which it can be represented by capital. Capital is even more independent of nature than it is a device. Capital can be taken at any point and passed on to a person. Capital is therefore a credit for the use of available economic abilities and can only be created where the division of labour allows the creation of devices; without division of labour there can be no capital either. The owner and user of equipment thus produces more value than he himself needs, the surplus benefits other people, this surplus is also expressed in newly emerging capital, which can then be used by others for new or different purposes. Capital is the scope for man's mental activity, freed from nature, so it can also be said: "We have to look at the matter from an economic point of view. Money may be a bad thing in religious and ethical terms; in the economic sense money is the spirit that is active within the economic organism", (B024, 27.7.1922). The use of people's mental abilities to improve and organise work processes, for example, to develop machines and equipment, means that humanity has the means of production to produce more goods than it could without. Fewer and fewer people must therefore be directly involved in the production of values and are given freedom for social or intellectual tasks. On the other hand, production costs are falling and material wealth is increasing. If, however, no new, additional consumption can be created through investment, new investment displaces existing means of production. This creates the need to expand markets or the danger of recession (= closed-down plants and a reduction in the existing ability to create value). For the entrepreneur there is the desire to make capital cheaper. "Capital has a tendency to continually decrease in its economic value, or actually prices, while the ground rent has a tendency to continually increase in its prices. (B024, 30.7.1922). The capital is left to the entrepreneur to realize his ideas and he will later give them back to the future entrepreneurs. Machines cannot be put into a corner for saving. Unused machines do not produce values, they must be used. Nor can they be considered private property, as they only represent value for the economic organism, not for the individual human being. If the right of use passes from one person to another, this corresponds more to a lending of general property than to the sale of private property. Ways should therefore be found to understand entrepreneurial capital not as a trade in goods, but as a lending and borrowing. "Where it begins to produce, the stream of national economic events changes for the means of production... it begins to be equal to nature, because it can no longer have a price3. It stands in the economic process as nature herself." (B157, 4.8.1922). Whoever works with capital in the economy tries to preserve this capital at the lowest possible cost and to use it fruitfully. "Industrial capital is dependent on seeking out the sources of raw materials and arranging markets where possible." (B024, 1.8.1922). So if the influence of economic life is not limited socially, legally or politically, this effort can lead to wars over raw material sources and markets. The management of corporate property should therefore be based on the ideal of always finding the person or persons who can most fruitfully use and multiply this capital for the economy and the social organism. Businesses can only develop from the existing economic system and they will only become what they can be to the economy and to people through the impulses and abilities of those who create them. It is up to the social organism to provide the right self-initiative and capable people with the available capital. To bring the capital together with the right people. It is not the search for profit that manages capital, but the responsibility to give people the opportunity to shape their own business and to use the capital in a meaningful way. For understandable reasons this can only be done by committees, associations that understand the economic system but act from the intellectual field. Therefore, regulations must be found that after the end of an entrepreneur's activity, company property is transferred to particularly suitable groups of people, who then use their ability to find the appropriate people to whom this company capital is transferred for new activities. Surpluses generated by a company remain in the company as far as necessary for investments, which can go beyond that for an appropriate share to cover the capital costs of the entrepreneur and everything else goes to social and intellectual institutions. Surpluses can only be generated by the entire economic system and the social organism, and should therefore be returned to it (B179). "To manage the entire capital possession in such a way that the individual gifted in a particular direction or that particularly gifted groups of people come to such a disposition of capital that arises only from their own initiative, everyone within a social organism must have a genuine interest in this. (B179, "III. Capitalism and Social Ideas") If capital, corporate structure and means of production are not freely available, people are inhibited in their developmental possibilities. "... the associated right of ownership must be able to be changed at the moment when it turns into a means of unjustified power development", (B179, "III. Capitalism and Social Ideas").
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