Alchemists misunderstood both chemistry and economics

[inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Laughs in Breton woods

[cruxifux@feddit.nl]

Yeah exactly.

[angrycommiekender@lemmy.world]

Metallurgy is just their hobby.

[freebeard@slrpnk.net]

That is a strange take because economics builds on this principle to function. If you found a producing company today it will have to buy a material and - by the magic you apply to it - sell it for more. Like a refinery buying crude oil and selling gasoline. Or a goldsmith buying gold and selling jewellery. It's how everything works.

On a broader take it reveals a Marxian perspective on a market where every item looses its value to the cost of the labor that goes in it. For the alchemist (if everyone found out his Pb->Au secret) the price will drop until it's worth the labor that went in it because everyone else also can't sell cheaper.

So labor is all that has value. And owning the means of production hasn't.

[nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de]

I don't think any technology can be successfuly kept secret in the long term

[humanperson@sh.itjust.works]

Not if you're the only one who knows and can create artificial scarcity.

[bokherif@lemmy.world]

Why? They make diamonds in the lab.

[mothmandelorian@lemmy.world]

Supply and demand, if you increase supply the price drops.

[nomecks@lemmy.wtf]

*DeBeers has entered the chat*

[mothmandelorian@lemmy.world]

That only works if value is solely determined through labor and it is not. Scarcity creates value through demand without added labor. Sone things are valuable with no labor involved. The labor theory of value is incredibly flawed.

[bokherif@lemmy.world]

The example I gave you is the exact opposite of what you’re saying

[mothmandelorian@lemmy.world]

No, it isn’t. The price of diamonds is declining as well. it’s supply and demand.

[agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works]

Really depends on how you define "magical". It was also very much legitimate proto-chemistry.

[gazter@aussie.zone]

Yeah, control the means of production!

[triasha@lemmy.world]

Secret knowledge was a lot more realistic back then.

If you were the ONLY person that knows how to turn base metals into gold, you can still be rich beyond all reason.