Labor? Capital? What should be important?

You are human! It is your natural right to live.

To live, you must first be able to maintain your life functions. 

In nature, it's a daunting balance. We call it wild nature, the law of the jungle applies in nature. The strong always defeats the weak. The big fish always eats the small fish. Of course, there are living communities in nature that apply the principle of strength in unity. 

In Africa, I think there are killer ants, for example. Once they attack, it's not so easy to get rid of them. 

So life in nature is based on a balance of power. 

Maybe a little bit of deception, setting traps. There are creatures in nature that adapt to their environment, they have evolved in such a way so that they cannot be seen because they have no power. 

There is a spider that builds a web to catch its victims. 

Not only plants are victims in nature, there are insect-eating plants that suddenly close and the insect is trapped inside. 

It is a food chain that has been going on in the world for millions of years. 

Maybe one day life will be discovered somewhere else in the universe. But for now we know that it is unique to our world.

Whether the power is direct muscle power, mental power or collective power. The strong survive, the weak become food for others.

Yes, in order to live as a human being, we too need to utilize the food chain, we need to find the nutrients we need, even at the cost of ending other lives. This is our primary need to survive. 

Although vegans and vegetarians are against animal foods, aren't plant foods also a part of life?

Just as an egg contains the nutrients needed for the chick to grow, a seed contains the nutrients needed for the seed to flourish, put there by the plant with all its labor.

Did you think the apple was growing on that branch so that Adam could bite it and get it stuck in his throat? 

The apple will fall into the soil near the tree and mix the minerals in the soil that the apple seed needs to grow. 

In fact, the main purpose of the tree making the apple with all that effort is to reproduce, to grow new shoots. Not for you to eat!

Anyway, in the end it is a balance, the balance of life. 

In order for this balance to occur, both the apple and the egg, the chicken and the calf will be eaten. Those who survive will live, those who don't survive will become food for others, this is the balance of nature.

But for us humans, life is not just about feeding and reproducing. 

We call it living like human beings. This is something else.

We all have other needs when we talk about life besides feeding ourselves and making love.

I won't enumerate the virtues of being human, but we have developed a means to fulfill our needs.

We invented money, perhaps the most important invention discovered by human beings in the development of civilization. 

Man invented money and then tied his life to it. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where those without money die of hunger. 

Everything has an equivalent in money. Money is so important that some people even sell their souls for money. 

Money is just an endless piece of metal or paper. It doesn't have a physical equivalent anymore. The money that most of us say we have in our pockets is just a few numbers in our bank accounts. 

In other words, it doesn't matter anymore whether it has a physical equivalent or not. Money has become an abstract concept.

Moreover, the value of this abstract concept is not a value that you and I can determine. 

We call it the state. The state has the power to determine the value of money to a certain extent. The state has a thousand different methods to set the value of money. 

But as I said, it is not entirely in the hands of the state to set the value of money. 

We call it the market, the balance of supply and demand, the market actually determines the value of money. The state can only influence the value of money by intervening in the market. 

Wrong intervention means wrong results and therefore wrong value. 

If we go into detail, what we call the market is actually you, me. 

But we do not determine the value of our money alone, but collectively. Mostly, it is the owners of capital.

The market is a place with complicated rules.

Well, isn't it possible to change the working principles of this gigantic machine we call the market? 

Why have we tied everything to money?

This topic is very deep and the answer is very long.

So let me simplify the question a bit. Or let me ask the question in a different way so that what I mean can be understood more easily. 

Labor! 

Is it not possible to increase the value of labor in the market? 

If everything is valued in money and labor has a monetary value, why is labor valued so cheaply in the market? 

Isn't this wrong?

Is there no way to raise the value of labor?

Actually, human beings have thought of a solution for this too. 

The solution is labor unions! Labor unions. 

The right to strike! Workers' rights! 

There is strength in unity! Just like in nature. 

Minimum wage negotiations are going on right now. 

Türk-İş is the largest trade union confederation in Turkey. 

Its president recently made a statement that none of the workers who are our members receive the minimum wage. 

So unionization worked. 

Why can't all workers be unionized?

If workers' rights are better defended this way, shouldn't all workers be unionized?

Unions are one thing, but I am still not completely satisfied with this solution.

On one side there are so many workers and on the other side there are so few employers. 

But one side has a lot of financial power, and the other side, even though they are more in number, cannot get exactly what they want in any negotiations. 

So I think the one who pays always blows the whistle. At some point the worker gives up and accepts the terms. Because there is no other choice. He has to work! He has to earn money. There is no other way to live!

Why can't you and I have so much finance? What's the secret? 

Capital!

Accumulation, capital accumulation! This doesn't come easily.

Once you have accumulated a certain amount of capital, maybe the rest comes by itself, things develop in a chain. They even say that money attracts money. But capital does not accumulate so easily.

And when you have capital, just don't screw up. Be smart! 

But what I mean by smart here is not the kind of smart that can solve sudoku. That's a different type of intelligence. 

If you look at it, how many smart people work for capital owners. 

You will say that they work because they get paid, but the money earned by employees is nothing compared to what a capital owner earns.

There are many families in the world who own capital, and they are very rich families. 

They have family wealth from their fathers, grandfathers, and even before that. 

Naturally, they raise their next generation accordingly. 

The next generation that takes over continues and even increases the family's wealth. 

There are those who fail, but if it is a well-established family that spans generations, their wealth usually continues for many years.

So, you may ask, how do those who do not have a rich family also become rich? 

Someone does something and then quickly turns the corner. 

What a strange phrase it is to turn the corner! 

Especially the technological developments of recent years have enabled such new rich people to multiply like mushrooms.

Social media is the best example of this. But not only social media, of course.

There must be a reason why capital is concentrated in the hands of certain families, not counting these latest rich people. 

Maybe one day we will examine this issue, how did some families accumulate so much capital? They say that the wealth of the rich tires the mouth of the poor. If the opportunity arises, we will talk a little bit.

But if you ask me what the main reason is, I think it's probably that when you have capital accumulation from your family, these families have a different perspective on life. 

At least the members of these families do not feel the need to work like a normal laborer. They grow up differently. 

But I don't mean to say that it is easy, but a responsible employer has his own problems. 

So is capital accumulation only in the hands of families? No!

There are many funds in the world, and they are headed by professional staff. 

For example, pension funds can be an example of this. 

The capital accumulated in such funds is also invested in some way. 

These investments can be a factory investment or another investment. Therefore, on the one hand, there are the workers who labor, and on the other hand, there are the fund managers who perhaps invest the retirement savings of those workers.

Capital accumulation may also be formed from the savings of small and small investors. The principle of strength in unity. 

The stock market. All shares of some companies traded on the stock exchange may be publicly traded. So again, laborers on the one hand and a community of small investors on the other.

Without further ado, here's where I want to end up.

The value of labor, which is determined by market conditions, is balanced at a much lower level than it should be due to the inability of laborers to join forces against such large capitals. In any case, the working class coming together may not work very well, because it is against the nature of the situation, the worker does not have the chance to go hungry for a long time.

When politicians also favor capital, the result is a shift in minimum wage negotiations in favor of the capitalists.

I don't know if this system will last forever, but I think it is necessary to at least take into account that laborers are human beings. Everyone has the right to live humanely. And this depends on those who govern the state to observe the balance.

One day, if those who govern the state realize that labor should be compensated as it should be, only then will this nation begin to live in prosperity.

Until that day comes, the law of the jungle will prevail. The fight between capital and labor will continue. Of course, the balance will be in favor of capital.

In these days when negotiations on the new minimum wage have started, I wanted to share with you my thoughts on this subject before the new minimum wage is determined.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow