Goebel Gone Global

Cranky Minarchist: Who's really greedy here?

crankyminarchist:

goebel:

crankyminarchist:

I’m TIRED of being called greedy.

Wanting to keep what you rightfully acquire through your own honest effort and then dispose of it as you see fit is NOT greed; wanting to take from someone else what they rightfully acquire through their honest effort and then dispose of it as you see fit,…

Yeah because making money based on your possession of capital is totally the same thing as hard work *eyeroll*

*Note* Just for the record, I am against taxation and view it as theft. But I also view the exploitation of labourers by capital as theft. That is (probably) where I disagree with OP.

Taxation is theft — on that point we are in absolute agreement.

On the other point, consider that constraining the definition of capital to mere currency is at least incomplete. Say you have in your possession a small parcel of land, a simple set of farming tools, and packet of pumpkin seeds. You plow your little field, plant your seeds, tend them carefully, and your patience and labour produce for you a lovely crop of pumpkins to harvest. Brilliant!

Say then that I approach you and demand that you give me your plow (Ha! Bet you thought I was going to say “a pumpkin,” huh?) because I want the plow to work my own field, where I want to grow potatoes. Where then does that leave you? You can still tend your land and grow your pumpkins, but with considerably increased labour and inconvenience without your plow. Now, does it matter if you bought the plow with money you earned from the sale of earlier pumpkins, or if you acquired the plow as an exchange for a wheelbarrow, or if you received the plow as a gift? No. The fact is, it’s YOUR plow, and you are completely within your rights to dispose of it (or not) as you see fit.

You can choose to simply deny my request. You can choose to give me the plow outright. You can choose to exchange the plow for something I have that you want more than you want the plow (a cart, perhaps). You can also choose to lend me the plow and ask for something from me to compensate you for the inconvenience of not having your own plow available for your own use — say, I am to provide labour for you for a fortnight to help harvest the pumpkins, at the end of the fortnight you are to lend me the plow, and after planting season I am to return the plow to you, with the addition of a bushel of my potatoes to compensate for my wear on your plow (to keep things simple, let’s assume you and I are both hounourable people and will both adhere to the terms of our agreement).

I, as the requestor, am within my rights to go elsewhere if I dislike either your choice of the plow’s disposition or any of the terms or conditions you set as the plow’s rightful owner — after all, you’re not the only bloke in the world with a plow. ;) So where, I ask, is the “exploitation” in all this?

You didn’t address the point that I made. I said:

“Yeah because making money based on your possession of capital is totally the same thing as hard work *eyeroll*”.

What you described was an exchange between equals and not the result of what I described (thus no visible exploitation from my p.o.v.). Let’s try another example:

You own a large swat of land. A swat of land so large that you could never maintain it yourself and you need assistance to do so. Since there is a state monopoly on the legitimacy of land ownership and yours and others is protected by the state, not everyone (and in face most people don’t) has access to very much land. Those people who do not have free access to land, because they have no means of producing on their own, come to you for employment. They maintain your fields for you, you take the product of their labour and sell it, give them a wage and keep the rest as profit. You have done no (or at most little) work in this process and yet are probably receiving greater income than those whom you hired and who maintained the land simply because you are granted ownership of it by the state. THAT is the exploitation that I spoke of; THAT is “making money based on your possession of capital”.

(Source: crankyanarchist, via crankyanarchist)