No, this is showing a counterexample, which would render the original theory moot. If we find a planet tomorrow that pushes you away rather than attracting you, then Newton’s theory of gravitation is (probably) no longer a valid model of the real world, or would have to be revised. That is just how science works.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, and sorry for the late response. Mine was just a simple counterexample to show that the tendency doesn’t always apply. You’re right that the c2 I used is wrong, and it should be s1+v1+c1, although that would still not change the result. My example was in the case where one producer wants to compete with another with a lower price, so chooses to trade a lower s for a bigger market share, so I wasn’t really getting into improved productivity, I was just addressing your initial statement of “competition forces prices down”.

In a real economy this chain would be much more complicated with way more steps and even backpropagation of some of the values. If we have a rate of decline of profit for company 1 called R1 and a rate R2, the overall R would only decline if R2 > R1, otherwise it would increase. So to prove a general declining rate of profit you would have to prove that the decline propagates fast enough through the entire chain.

Also, I fail to see how c/v (organic composition of capital) necessarily increases. If prices lower (due to competition, or productivity as you have said), then c will also decrease for the companies using those products (as I have shown in my example) as the cost of machines and input lowers (a computer in 2025 costs way less than the same one in 2000). To prove that c/v increases you would have to prove that dc > dv (derivatives), which is not at all clear since, while they both decrease, they can decrease at varying rates which are not predictable.

You didn’t address any of my concerns, nor was I talking about productivity. Let’s try again for the the first one with a simple example:

Company 1 makes a product (let’s say timber) at 50 surplus value. That 50 is a cost for company 2 that uses the product as an input material (it makes wooden chairs). We can calculate the total rate of profit of both companies. Now company 1 is forced to lower the price to 40 because of competition. We calculate the total rate of profit again and the total rate of profit has actually increased.

Thus, it does not follow that lowering prices/profits leads to a decrease in the overall rate of profit

Competition forces prices down, and rates of profit with it

This is not true in the general case. If prices for input materials are down, profits rise for the company using them. One company’s profit loss is another’s gain. That is even with the shaky assumption that competition can exist long term in a free market. Imperialism, as defined by Lenin, results in concentration of capital and the removal of competition.

this process can be struggled against by expanding markets or finding new industries

There are counteracting forces for it, but expanding is not one of them. Expanding does not change the rate of profit (profit/capital invested); at most, it changes the total profit.

There is no tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The theory is inconclusive, as is empirical research. If TRPF were true, then growing a company would, in fact, accelerate the process.

This is exactly the dismissive attitude that has shaped Mastodon development, and why it will never have broad appeal to replace any traditional social media.

The article cites a case of online harassment from right wingers towards an immigration friendly politician that was ultimately shot. Are you seriously using this in defense of “but muh free speech?!”

I’ve only been playing games on Linux for the past year and it’s been a pretty smooth experience. Go for it!

The screenshot shows 1password, which to my knowledge is not affiliated to Microsoft, so I think yes, they are sponsored

Win11: less functionality, more ads

And what’s with the weasel words like “recommended”? Just call them “sponsored” or “ads”, like they really are.

I did one better. I installed Linux

Wow, Microsoft are always so innovative! I never thought that the Win11 taskbar could get any shittier, but somehow they managed it. It’s great to see those thousands of engineers being put to good use.

Proof of work is not even scalable to the level of current bank transactions. Ethereum network didn’t have enough compute to clear the backlog created by some niche cat NFT “game” a few years ago when people still gave a shit about NFTs.

Limited purchasing power of the poor and middle class is a political problem, not a problem solved by tech, no matter what crypto gurus and tech messiahs will tell you. The most prolific crypto miners are the ones that already have more “traditional” capital to invest. So crypto is not solving the wealth divide, it is just making it worse.

I hate banks as much as anyone, but crypto is not the solution.

and no ones saying to not have a discord. Just use it for what its meant to be used as. Social interaction. And stop using it for what it very obviously isnt, which is a information repository.

Exactly. The problem is admins encourage it to be used for technical discussion as there are channels dedicated to that. And Discord has picked up on the need for structured discourse and have reinvented forums, just shittier and more closed.

The way to prevent all this information going into a black hole is for admins to stop encouraging Discord for this kind of usage, in addition to users moving to more open alternatives. Godot for example is moving in the right direction. It has recently opened a shiny new Discourse instance, now the only thing that’s left is to burn the Discord forum with fire.

This. There are so many OSS projects that are over-reliant on Discord and it will bite them in the ass in a few years.

Yeah, I never understood the point of these nofap movements if you just substitute it with some other addiction like binge watching or doomscrolling social media. It seems like treating a symptom instead of a disease. If you fill your life with fulfilling interactions with people, hobbies and passions, you won’t even have the time for harmful addictions.

Well, apparently freeing yourself from porn enables you to make even more silly memes. Probably better to keep doing porn then.