Capitalism and economic struggles

[Tim May]

On Thursday, May 1, 2003, at 09:20  AM, Vincent Penquerc'h wrote:

> Odd. What you said is pretty close to what I was saying (or maybe
> thinking), apart from the fact that I see property as a tool to
> reach a goal (of a better life), and you seem to see it as an end
> in itself. All the examples you cited are "trying to live a better
> life", and there's nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't
> make another person's life worse.

Two people start businesses in the same town. Alice works hard, works 
long hours, concentrates on her business. Bob fails to do this. Alice 
drives Bob out of business.

One can play word games about whether it was Alice's actions, or Bob's 
actions, or what the meaning of "drive out of business" and "make 
another person's life worse" is.

I would not say Alice made Bob's life worse: Bob may be financially 
back at zero, but Bob has maybe been taught a good lesson. And if not, 
capitalism is the process of creative destructionism, as Schumpeter 
said.

Fact is, life is a series of economic and territorial struggles. Some 
succeed, many fail.

What strong crypto will do is create a system where more and more of 
the wealth is in the hands of the most competent and hard-working. 
Evading confiscation of income, creation of perpetual trusts, bypassing 
national borders...all of this works against the unwashed masses and 
their schemes for income redistribution.

For those of you on this on this list who have not figured this out 
already, well, there's a place for fellow travelers and useful idiots.
>
--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you." -- Nietzsche