ABSTRACT
The labour theory of value is the lynchpin of classical political economy, the modern science of wealth. And the idea that labour is the source of all value, and hence the wealth of the nation, is our uneasy inheritance from Adam Smith. The flipside of the labour theory of value is a yearning for a life without labour and a form of wealth that defies the law of entropy. This fantasy informs various strategies for escaping the exigencies of wealth derived from human labour. In this paper I review three different strategies for securing wealth in a form that not only obviates the necessity of productive labour for its owner, but also holds out the promise of permanence – that is, a form of wealth that escapes the limits of ordinary materiality. These strategies involve the creation debt, fame, and brands.
