> Who's to say they don't have slaves, or don't have good working conditions, etc.?
This is what social norms are for, and we have done it forever. The modern era has made this exponentially more difficult.
> Eventually I'll need to trade, and that trade will benefit both parties by making them both better off.
Yep yep, totally fine if you're not exploiting anybody.
> But by becoming better off, some value was captured: I value what I purchase equal to or more that what I gave up.
As long as you're creating value throughout the chain, you're doing just fine.
> Do I have to abstain from all trade if my marginal revenue exceeds my marginal cost?
This is actually an interesting question! The Luther piece touches on this a lot (where is the line between "Usury" and "Commerce"?). The answer he arrives on is no, you don't need to abstain, and that division of labor is not Usury.
The point is not to avoid profit, it's to avoid breaking the golden rule – there's no hard cutoff around how much profit is "too much" profit, but a rule of thumb that's often quoted (for whatever reason) is around 30% – i.e. if you see a gross profit that's consistently at or above that number, there's usually exploitation happening somewhere.
> How do I scale?
The answer depends on what we mean by scale. Revenues? Profits? Headcount? Volume of throughput?
This is what social norms are for, and we have done it forever. The modern era has made this exponentially more difficult.
> Eventually I'll need to trade, and that trade will benefit both parties by making them both better off.
Yep yep, totally fine if you're not exploiting anybody.
> But by becoming better off, some value was captured: I value what I purchase equal to or more that what I gave up.
As long as you're creating value throughout the chain, you're doing just fine.
> Do I have to abstain from all trade if my marginal revenue exceeds my marginal cost?
This is actually an interesting question! The Luther piece touches on this a lot (where is the line between "Usury" and "Commerce"?). The answer he arrives on is no, you don't need to abstain, and that division of labor is not Usury.
The point is not to avoid profit, it's to avoid breaking the golden rule – there's no hard cutoff around how much profit is "too much" profit, but a rule of thumb that's often quoted (for whatever reason) is around 30% – i.e. if you see a gross profit that's consistently at or above that number, there's usually exploitation happening somewhere.
> How do I scale?
The answer depends on what we mean by scale. Revenues? Profits? Headcount? Volume of throughput?