Conversely, a great chef can fashion of those same materials a confection of greater value than a commonplace apple tart, with no more effort than an ordinary cook uses to prepare an ordinary sweet.
does this just completely contradict the point the character (and author) are trying to make or am i too stoned to read?
It’s a kitchen illustration. It completely demolishes Marx in just a couple paragraphs. What more do you ask for!?
Heinlein goes on to define Value a bit more to make his point, but I can’t be assed to go find the quote again. But his point here is that effort is worthless and only the result of the effort matters. But it’s such a joke of a point that I’d have assumed it was satire, if not for the fact that nothing else about the book is satire.
Its an intentional/unintentional misreading of the idea of “labor adding value”. Literally ascribing to Marx/communists the idea that applying any amount of labor to a production task can fundamentally change the output.
Heinlein’s character is basically saying that Marx believes:
“Garbage in” results in “Not garbage out” if enough labor is applied.
does this just completely contradict the point the character (and author) are trying to make or am i too stoned to read?
Death to America
It’s a kitchen illustration. It completely demolishes Marx in just a couple paragraphs. What more do you ask for!?
Heinlein goes on to define Value a bit more to make his point, but I can’t be assed to go find the quote again. But his point here is that effort is worthless and only the result of the effort matters. But it’s such a joke of a point that I’d have assumed it was satire, if not for the fact that nothing else about the book is satire.
Its an intentional/unintentional misreading of the idea of “labor adding value”. Literally ascribing to Marx/communists the idea that applying any amount of labor to a production task can fundamentally change the output.
Heinlein’s character is basically saying that Marx believes:
“Garbage in” results in “Not garbage out” if enough labor is applied.
Which is complete nonsense.