Inalienist
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inalienist.bsky.social
Inalienist
@inalienist.bsky.social
270 followers 710 following 590 posts
YouTuber interested in politics, economics, political philosophy, political theory, ethical/moral philosophy

https://www.youtube.com/@inalienist
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inalienist.bsky.social
Comparing property rights reveals a starker contrast than wages, as workers as employees receive 0% claim to what they produce

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as
Capitalism in economic theory capital: I get the part of the product my capital contributes labor: I get the part of the product I contribute Capitalism's property rights in reality Employer: I get 100% ownership of the whole product (Q, -K, -L) Labor: I have 0% claim on the whole product
June 27, 2025 at 9:08 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Take the economic democracy pill
www.pbs.org/newshour/eco...
David Ellerman
June 27, 2025 at 1:36 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
The same inalienable rights arguments imply both as David Ellerman's philosophy illustrates
Institutions Involuntary institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and feudalism Voluntary institutions Voluntary alienist insittutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment system Voluntary delegate institutions Political: Constitutional democracy Economic: Workplace democracy
June 17, 2025 at 4:36 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Yes, if all firms were worker cooperatives, the economy would be democratic. Capitalism is a misnomer. The institution that determines capitalist property and labor relations isn’t private ownership of the means of production, but rather the employer-employee contract.
bsky.app/profile/inal...
An employer and employee cooperate to commit a crime. Both get caught and are held responsible. An employer and employee cooperate to engage in non-criminal production. The employer gets 100% of property rights and liabilities created in production despite the employee being co-responsible for them.
June 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Worker control is compatible with private property in the means of production. It's based on the private property norm that people have an inalienable right to appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. For instance, a worker coop can lease means of production from third parties.
An employer and employee cooperate to commit a crime and get caught. Both are held responsible for the crime. An employer and employee cooperate to engage in non-criminal production, and the employer gets sole legal responsibility over property rights and liabilities created in production.
June 17, 2025 at 1:16 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Capitalism’s employer-employee contract is inherently anti-democratic because it’s alienation-based, unlike delegation-based contracts that democracy favors. In an employment contract, the employer manages the firm in their own name, not as a delegate of the workers.
Institutions Involuntary institutions Political: Autocracy Economics: Slavery and feudalism Voluntary institutions Voluntary alienist institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment system Voluntary delegative institutions Political: Constitutional democracy Economic: Workpace democracy Diagram Source: David Ellerman
June 16, 2025 at 4:38 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Arguing in terms of property rights instead of value reveals a starker contrast. In property-theoretic terms, workers as employees get 0% of the positive and negative results of production while the employer gets 100% of that. This is known as the labor theory of PROPERTY.
Diagram by David Ellerman
The Labor Theory The Labor Theory of Property The Labor Theory of Value Labor as the SOURCE (of Value) of the Product → Labor Theory of Property Labor as the Measure of Value
June 12, 2025 at 8:45 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
One major problem with utilitarianism is that it can't rule out a totalitarian society where people have been indoctrinated to prefer their oppression. Utilitarians, who see freedom as an instrumental end, aren't defenders of liberty
#Ethics #Philosophy #Economics #Capitalism #Utilitarian
Utilitarians calculating that indoctrinating people to prefer their oppression is more likely achievable than liberating people from oppression Utilitarian: Capitalism is good because ...
June 11, 2025 at 6:29 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Property is theft

#philosophy #ethics #Georgism #Georgist #HenryGeorge #DavidEllerman #leftism #anticapitalism #capitalism #libertarian #libertarianism
Proudhon: Property is theft Marx: That's a contradiction Stirner: Who said theft was wrong? David Ellerman: The employer gets 100% of the positive and negative product while workers as employees get 0% of that. Property is theft in an employer-employee contract. Henry George: "[I]f... 'all property is robbery'...no one can..., as we say, obtain a right to property, then... a man can have no right to the things he consumes for food." "[P]rivate property in land--which...springs historically from usurpation and robbery is something so utterly absurd." -- Henry George Robert Nozick (crying): "The comparable question about an individual is whether a free system will allow him to sell himself into slavery. I believe that it would."
April 4, 2025 at 2:54 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
The attached diagram from David Ellerman explains the non-democratic tendencies of neoliberalism quite well. Ellerman’s work shows that the Enlightenment idea of inalienable rights is anti-capitalist and implies workers’ control over production.
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Employer-employee contracts have a moral inconsistency that can only be resolved by structuring all firms as worker cooperatives.

#Cooperatives #Labor #WorkerCoops #WorkerCooperatives #philosophy #ethics #capitalism #anticapitalism #leftism
An employer and employee cooperate to commit a crime. Both are held legally responsible despite the employee having sold their labor. An employer and employee cooperate to produce outputs using up inputs. The employer gets 100% of the legal responsibility in the form of property rights and liabilities.
March 26, 2025 at 9:19 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
such as the idea that people have an inalienable right to appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. This principle is violated in the employer-employee contract.

A free market economy of worker coops is perfectly compatible with limited government
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 26, 2025 at 5:56 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Liberalism being correct doesn't mean that history is over. There are still structural problems. This diagram hints at those.
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economc: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 23, 2025 at 3:39 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Insitutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 23, 2025 at 3:27 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 22, 2025 at 2:43 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
The norm that legal responsibility should be assigned to the de facto responsible party implies that workers ought to jointly appropriate the positive and negative results of production i.e. property rights to produced outputs and liabilities for used-up inputs.
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Instituions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 22, 2025 at 2:13 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Capitalism's employer-employee contract is fundamentally a contract to alienate workers' self-management rights to the employer. Democratic theory tells us that only contracts based on delegation are valid.
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Volunatary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
Contemporary liberalism has forgotten that traditional arguments for political democracy were not merely arguments for contract over coercion, but drew a further distinction in contracts between contracts based on consent to delegate and consent to alienate. Alienation-based contracts are invalid.
Institutions Involuntary Institutions Political: Autocracy Economic: Slavery and Feudalism Voluntary Institutions Voluntary Alienist Institutions Political: Constitutional non-democracy Economic: Employment System Voluntary Inalienist Institutions Political: Constitutional Democracy Economic: Workplace Democracy
March 8, 2025 at 3:15 PM
inalienist.bsky.social
The employer, an alien legal entity, rules the firm in their own name. They aren’t a delegate of the workers. You can’t name a single property right violated. The right to appropriate the fruits of your labor is clearly alienated though.
December 19, 2024 at 3:22 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Whoever is factually responsible should bear the legal responsibility. In other words, the workers should jointly legally own the whole (positive and negative) product. This contradicts the assignment in the employer-employee contract.

Responsibility can't be transferred even with consent.
Labor de facto responsible for (Q, -K, 0) = Labor's product Labor legally appropriates (0, 0, L) = labor commodity, whose value is the wage Labor de facto responsible for, but doesn't appropriate (Q, -K, 0) - (0, 0, 0, L) = whole product
December 10, 2024 at 7:21 AM
inalienist.bsky.social
Horrible bosses

#cooperatives #coops #politics #philosophy #unions #union #labor #capitalism
How employer-employee system apologists imagine horrible bosses work Employee: I'll quit Employer: please don't How horrible bosses actually work in an employer-employee firm Employee: I'll quit!!! Employer: I know you need this job. How horrible bosses actually work in a worker cooperative Worker voting: you're finished Manager: no, please
December 5, 2024 at 4:59 AM