| Pyro as Bill said: So instead of using the most successful currency ever, lb of sterling silver, everything is denominated in 'labour hours'? Great idea! Ignoring the fact that a 'brain surgery' hour is not equivalent to a 'clean the toilet' hour, how would this work for a bus driver? Let's say he has a 1hr route into town. If only 1 person rides the bus they have to pay 1LAB but if 50 people get on the bus they only pay 0.02LAB each? What happens if 50 people get on the bus but they all decide to get off halfway to watch a capitalist get shot? The price was 0.02LAB at the start of the journey but they only used 0.01LAB each for half an hr. Do the passengers get a refund or do they just shoot the driver for making a profit? See? It doesn't even work in theory. One thing I like about Commies is how hilarious they can be when they don't hold actual political power. Opening a cafe = colonialism |
"Successful" at what? Currencies are merely tools used to full-fill various needs (store of value, ease of exchange, etc.) There is no universal currency successful at everything. It's why people like Warren despite advocating for non-circulating labor-notes believed that there shouldn't be a money monopoly (in which one currency is mandated to be used for everything.) Labor notes would've filled a particular niche within a greater economy.
This theory of value doesn't ignore that different labor requires different effort (independent of time.) There is an opportunity cost that a brain surgeon takes on which a janitor does not, and it would make no sense for him (or anyone) to subjectively evaluate the costs of their work to be the same.
Here is what Warren's labor note looked like. Note his retail store -- the Cincinnati Time Store was very successful.
Notice the phrase "in Carpenter's work" which implies that different work was evaluated differently by him. But also he tied the currency to the price of corn (which was a stable price) which allowed people with unique and unusual occupations to convert their labor into work-time.
As for your bus-driver example, the costs of running the bus are implicitly shared in this case. Bus drivers take losses when only one person rides, while they make profits when many people ride. There would be a standard fare for everyone based on the cost of running the bus over a certain calculated period of time (say a year) with varying passengers. One doesn't need to limit oneself to the costs at that particular moment in time to create a general fare. You arbitrarily limited the time-scale to make a straw-man.
By the way, this is not communism. Warren actually disliked communism quite a bit, after directly experiencing the failure of an American Owenite colony.
" According to Warren, there should be absolutely no community of property; all property should be individualized, and "those who advocated any type of communism with connected property, interests, and responsibilities were doomed to failure because of the individuality of the persons involved in such an experiment." Warren is notable for expounding the idea of "sovereignty of the individual"."
