From: Spike (spike66@comcast.net)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 23:44:10 MDT
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Welland
...This thread strikes an interesting cord for me. In my opinion one of
the
unaddressed (and unintended) consequences of unbridled capitalism(*) is
that
over time natural resources, i.e. land, slowly ends up in the hands of a
few...
On the contrary, this consequence is intended. This
demonstrates the beauty and power of unbridled capitalism.
Matt, when wealth is evenly spread over the population, it
is just money. But when it is concentrated in the hands
of a few, then it becomes CAPITAL and it takes on a certain
POWER to create new wealth and make things happen. This is
because when money does concentrate, notice that it always
seems to fall into the hands of those who know how to USE
the capital to create more wealth, to the benefit of everyone,
whether by creating jobs or by creating products to be
purchased by the proletariat.
Contrast this to unbridled communism, which destroys the
value of land, since the government cannot be trusted to
not seize the land on a whim (so why pay much for it?).
Communism destroys wealth by reducing incentive to struggle
and take risks. Take away the rewards of competition,
and people will not compete. If people do not compete,
they do not achieve excellence. They eventually get to
where they achieve practically nothing, living in a dingy
gray hell, struggling for mediocrity but not getting there.
Russia will likely not recover from the curse of communism
before the singularity.
...Carried to its inevitable consequence all the land is owned by a few
very
rich people who literally can deny life to the remaining population...
It would work that way except for the fact that land
is not a critical resource anymore. In fact most
land is actually a liability. Land in cities has a
great deal of value, and is increasing. Intellectual
property carries value and is increasing. Farmland? Nah,
it's just dirt, and the tax structure of the U.S. is
making it harder all the time to make money from it.
spike
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