Subject:
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Re: The nature of property (was: Idiots, Part Deux)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:18:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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968 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton writes:
> >
> > > Then again, in Libertopia, one expects that when one *buys* land, one buys
> > > it *from* someone. Hence, if you were dumb enough to sell the space you
> > > physically occupy to someone else, leaving you with nothing, tough beans to
> > > you. At least, such would be a capitalist view, I would think.
> >
> > That's how I see it too. But that is wicked, not good and just.
>
> Why, in particular is is 'wicked' to make the best deal you can for
> something. We're assuming that the person you're dealing with is competent
> and you are not being fraudulent, right?
>
> Is selling your body off for spare parts (and thus committing suicide,
> because you get disassembled) something that you have a right to do if you
> enter into the deal fully informed of the consequences and decide to do it?
> If so, how is this different?
First, your stance seems to assume that notions like 'competent,' 'fraudulent,'
and 'fully informed' are binary in nature and that a person is on one side or
another of a clearly demarked line. I don't think that's so.
Second, It's still my stance that wicked (or good or evil) is in the eye of the
beholder. So really what I (and everyone else, I think) mean when I say that
is that that behavior is something that I find extremely ugly.
Denying someone the ability to exist for anything short of preserving your own
ability to exist is ugly. Making a good deal in a transaction may or may not
be ugly. It's ugly when investors have information that is not common
knowledge and they use that to buy up resources from people who live much
closer to poverty right before those resources vastly increase in value. But I
can't clearly (or at least, I haven't yet) define why that's different than
just working hard to gain a rare skill and then using that skill to make lots
of money. I think it must hinge on the plight of those supplying you with
resources.
If the little old lady that's selling me her house knows that I'm going
subdivde her four acres and make an extra $140K but she doesn't know how and
doesn't want to bother, then that seems fine. But if she's wholly ignorant of
what can be done and thinks I'll just rent it to someone, that seems closer to
wicked, but not fraudulent. If I find out that the county accidentally sent
out a bunch of reassessment notices with too high values, and I go around
trying to buy up those properties from the people fleeing the new tax burden,
that's certainly wicked even if I had nothing to do with the accident.
If a parent is not able to pay for food for his kids and wants to sell his
organs to build a trust that will feed and educate them, this seems like a
pretty borderline situation. The wickedness of taking advantage of his
situation depends on a bunch of other variables. If there is some other way
that the man could accomplish a reasonable outcome, then I think we can assume
that he is not 'fully informed' and 'competent.' If there really is no other
way out, then maybe he is.
And it depends on my/your situation as well. If I'm worth $2M today and my
choices are: a)I can increase my worth by 5% by negotiating to harvest
someone's organs or b)I can decrease my worth by 1% by helping the same person
to get on their feet, then I think that pursuit of option a is wicked and
pursuit of option b is good. Choosing to do neither is slightly wicked. If
I'm worth -$5K today (but earn enough to tread water) and faced with the
situation, option a is still wicked and option b is over-the-top good and doing
nothing is pretty understandable.
Do you think the picture that I'm painting is wrong?
Chris
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