On Sat, 09 Jan 1999, David A. Kekich wrote:
>Mike Linksvayer wrote:
>> There is no certainty that a purely capitalistic economy would
>> have enriched Einstein. Perhaps he would have found it easier
>> to make lots of money. Producing "good stuff" isn't enough --
>> you have to get other people to pay you for your stuff.
>> Discoveries in theoretical physics are pretty hard to leverage
>> into a really large fortune.
>
> Under pure capitalism, use of ideas without compensation would be
>theft. Einstein would have eventually prospered.
An idea is not a "thing", and cannot be property without
coercive enforcement of the monopoly.
I agree that Einstein would probably have prospered; I just
don't think that pure capitalism will include property rights
in other people's minds.
-- Wolfkin. wolfkin@freedomspace.net | Libertarian webhost? www.freedomspace.net On a visible but distant shore, a new image of man; The shape of his own future, now in his own hands.-- Johnny Clegg.