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Comment by nordsieck | Hacker News Reader

> Modern America favors capital

The universe favors capital because capital is more mobile than labor.

That sounds like a king justifying the divine right of kings... The effect of mobility is offset by there being more workers than owners. These outcomes are not inevitable.

> The effect of mobility is offset by there being more workers than owners.

It's actually the opposite. The more workers there are the more likely some of them will defect for whatever capital offers.

In the labor market, that's true. ("We offer unmatched benefits, including your choice of wide-mouthed bottles or adult diapers!") But in politics, the defections must be measured as a proportion of the total population.

Some of the relatively higher mobility of capital is due to the policies which capital has persuaded politicians to enact.

The difference is that physical material need to be transported. I don’t think you can move warehouse overseas to save capital

Or maybe because capital buys people (->votes->power->more capital).

The universe has a preference for mobility?

Capital can choose which jurisdiction it wants to be under much more easily than labor. This "forces" laws to be more favorable to capital than labor.

This is changing in the software world.

Software gives "labor" more scalability and leverage than ever before.

This is one of the reasons I feel good about contributing to open source. It boosts the prospects of at least some workers, while at the same time offering great value for employers, for industry, and for society at large.

I was referring to software developers having greater leverage in the labor market. Writing useful software gives developers higher economic output for their labor than we’ve had in history. It also creates unique mobility opportunities for remote developers. It is changing the capital vs labor dynamic. This is true for a narrow part of the labor market, which is why I put quotes around the word labor.

Can’t edit my earlier comment but felt I should clarify.

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