Superphysics Superphysics
Chapter 4

The Six Types of Effort

by Juan
June 3, 2018 4 minutes  • 796 words
Table of contents

Part 2 explained the effort theory of value which says that useful work or effort is the foundation of exchangeable value.

This is totally different from Economics and Mercantilism which uses money as the basis, through marginal pricing theory.

Since effort is very important, its definition becomes very important. In our theory, we have defined human effort, whether physical or mental, as ultimately being rooted in psychological or metaphysical toil and trouble. This is opposite of the labor theory of value from Karl Marx which is based on physical work.

Next, we will categorize effort according to Smith’s system of productive and unproductive labor, which he seems to have gotten from the Physiocrats.

He defines:

  • productive labor as that which produces some vendible commodity
  • unproductive labor as something that does not produce anything vendible.

This definition was later frowned upon by writers such as Jean Baptiste Say, who did not like the name ‘unproductive labor’ being applied to statesmen, singers, doctors, and people who render services.

This is why we classify work into six categories.

1-2. Material and Immaterial Effort

Smith
The gravest, most important, and some of the most frivolous professions are unproductive: Churchmen, Lawyers, Physicians, all Men of letters, Players, buffoons, musicians, opera-singers, opera-dancers, etc. Their labour has a certain value regulated by the same principles which regulate other kinds of labour.
The Wealth Of Nations Simplified, Book 2, Chapter 3

Nowadays:

  • unproductive labour is called ‘services’
  • productive labour is ‘manufacturing’ or ‘agriculture’

To make the naming systematic, we use the First Law of Value to replace them with Material and Immaterial Effort:

Material Effort produces something that can be bound by a specific space and time, manifesting as a thing or object.

Examples are:

  • Manufacturing
  • Agriculture
  • Mining

Immaterial Effort produces something that cannot be bound by a specific space and time, manifesting as a service or project such as an event or experience

Examples are:

  • Services
  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Government

A singer singing in a concert, and the effort in setting up the lighting and sound systems, are immaterial effort. The revenue for them is realized through the sales of tickets which is the material effort.

Singer singing
In Supereconomics, singing is immaterial effort or work

3-4. Skilled and Unskilled Effort

We use the Second Law of Value to classify effort as skilled or unskilled, according to the relativistic real values of their outputs:

Skilled Effort requires many years of training and education.

Examples are:

  • 3-star chefs
  • Professional athletes or Olympians
  • Engineers, Doctors, and Industrial farmers

Unskilled Effort requires little training and education.

Examples are:

  • Ordinary cooks in households and community eateries
  • Amateur sportsmen
  • Construction workers, caregivers, and small-scale farmers

A wealthy country will be able to support more skilled effort than unskilled ones. For example, Olympic medals are a good metric that indicates national wealth.

Basketball player dunking
In Supereconomics, amateur players are unskilled effort or work

5-6. Value-adding and Value-Maintaining

Lastly, we use the Fourth Law to classify effort as value-adding or value-maintaing:

Value-adding effort creates or adds new value.

Examples are:

  • Manufacturers, farmers, miners, construction, utilities, recyclers, innovators, successful writers and scientific discoveries

Value-maintaining effort maintains the value already created. Adam Smith calls these unproductive labor.

Examples are:

  • Governments, Militaries, Security personnel, Reporters, Lawyers, Lawmakers, Finance and Insurance

A wealthy country will have more value-adders than value-maintainers. A country can become poor if its maintainers turn into rent-seekers that cannibalize the value-adders:

  • This happens most obviously in military dictatorships since the military values its effort more because they put their own lives at risk. An example is Cuba, North Korea, Myanmar, and Venezuela
  • This also can happen in countries that adopt state religions which stifle value-creation. Examples are Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Iran, and Aceh.
  • Similarly, it sometimes can happen in traditional or unprogressive states. Examples are China under Mao, Tibet, and Vietnam.
Soldier fighting
The military’s work is a value-maintaining effort. Weapons manufacture is value-adding if it leads to new technologies for non-military applications

With this, we can classify any profession easily according to these 6 types of effort:

Effort Persistence Skill Creativity
Nursing Immaterial Skilled Maintaining
Banking and Finance Immaterial Skilled Maintaining
Singers Immaterial Unskilled Maintaining
Professional Athletes Immaterial Skilled Maintaining
Cooks Immaterial Unskilled Adding
Content writing Immaterial Unskilled Adding
Manufacture of Microchips Material Skilled Adding
Rice Farming Material Unskilled Adding

Supereconomics aims to:

  • balance the immaterial and material efforts
  • increase effort to become skilled
  • increase the efficiency of value-maintaining effort so that more effort can go to value-creation or addition

This classification system allows our supereconomy to be automated in order to further reduce the value-maintaining effort. A rich country can use its skilled labor to code the AI that can be used by poor countries to help them rise to wealth faster, bypassing the usual corrupt rent-seekers that made them poor in the first place.

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