Re: Private Property and Capitalism

Twirlip of Greymist (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Sat, 12 Oct 1996 14:23:19 -0700 (PDT)


On Oct 11, 10:48pm, Suresh Naidu wrote:
} On Fri, 11 Oct 1996, Twirlip of Greymist wrote:

} Many indigenous people were perfectly happy being self-sustaining and
} living off the land before greed fuelled colonialism robbed it from them.
} And colonialism helped the merchants and missonaries more than anyone.
}
} Blame them both. The corporation that buys the land and chains the
} peasants to it is just as guilty as the faux government.

Well, rights-based libertarianism would say that the indigenes owned
their land by virtue of use and possession, and the problem is in the
colonists not recognizing their property rights.

Although that'd often have to be a collective property right -- E. Shaun
Russell, "property is theft" makes most sense if you consider a nomadic
society, and then consider a farmer trying to fence off some land in the
middle of the migration path.

} > } hoping we as a species get out of this greed rut and into something
} > } sustainable.
} > Ecosystem hasn't been that cooperative, and it's gone for 3-4 gigayears.
} Don't understand. If we don't have some form of sustainability, we're

But a greed-based system is perfectly capable of being sustainable.
Existence proof: the ecosystem. Yes there is cooperation within it, but
the basic motivation of life is selfish reproduction. And predator-prey
relationships are a lot nastier than usual business.

Hmm. I smell a possible analogy-argument of "commerce is more
productive than predation and full cooperation would be even more so."
That may well be true -- I just don't believe full cooperation is stable
with autonomous beings.

} be drastically reduced. Nobody would have to work more than 2 hours a
} day. If everybody realized this was all it took to keep a smoothly

Can you support that claim? What level would society be at?

} No, because in above system, supply meets need, rather than demand.
} Profit is eliminated. There is no need to produce more than neccesary

How you measure need, except by demand? Especially in an anarchic
system.

Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix

"If I were not a man of peace I'd coerce the three of you to quivering
jellyfish and get to the bottom of this."
-- Julian May, _The Adversary_