AskProfWolff: Are there sources of value that a capitalist can exploit that don't rely on labor?

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[JoAnnChateau-Progress]

Technical feedback -- Pet videos and Netflix come in loud and clear on my laptop. My volume is up as high as it will go. But I can barely hear your program. Please set the volume louder when you record. Your work is too important for anyone to miss. Thanks for all you do!

[mikkeljuhler]

So if 10 clueless workers build one shitty chair in one day, and a skilled craftsmen builds the best chair the world has ever seen in one day, the shitty chair is 10 times as valuable?

[distortiontildeafness]

I think the question was asking whether value can exist without labour being expended on it.. Many people will point to natural resources as an intuitive example of something have value without any labor involved

But realize in order to harness and use natural resources, labor must be applied

[schumanhuman]

Land has a pre existing value from it's fertility and proximity to other resources (Rivers, oil etc). Because it is fixed in supply, that can be exploited by monopolization. Land also gains an additional site value from it's proximity to man made infrastructure via agglomeration, so via it's monopolization, that is the exploitation of others labour via a positive externality which creates a capitalised price.
Land gains explain almost all of the accumulation of wealth documented in Piketty. Over the long term, land gains rival equities in most Western economies, and when you consider a large amount of equities are also reliant on land, Reits obviously or simply the land acquisitions of what might otherwise be ostensibly productive companies, lands role cannot be underestimated.

[IMatchoNation]

Wasn't the intent of the question to ask if value (in the Marxist sense) can come from somewhere other than human labor? Ie from animals, machines?

[nobunaga]

Does Environmental value fit into the scope of that question? For example, exploiting a community’s forrest to produce a good... and the value added may be because it’s a rare type of wood and supply is limited.
Am I getting off subject?

[youngeagle]

" Capital is unpaid labor. " Karl Marx

[zachhodgson]

Would love to see a more lectures on just this subject.

[jakebrake]

It was once said the Earth has enough land for another 1, 000 generations. Fresh water is the key.