Property is theft!

[sarahj]

I never said that intelligence was not genetic - I said that "luck" plays no role in intelligence. Like I said to sarahj - if you have any evidence that it has before please show us and the argument is over.

I don't need evidence. You already accepted that most traits are determined by factors outside one's control. That is the definition of luck.

NOW the argument is over.

[Conor]

A child would laugh at it, it is such bu11sh1t.

Can you refute the argument?

[TradCat]

Even if you argue that people deserve no credit for their talents (we used to call them God-given but genetic will make the same point) how can you ensure they use them for the benefit of society? Just because you are good at something doesn't mean it's not hard work. Why bother? Why not opt for the easy life? How could you make sure that the guy who could discover a cure for cancer isn't operating a petrol pump?

[Mercurial]

A child would laugh at it, it is such bu11sh1t.

Anyone who succeeds is 'lucky', everyone who fails never had a chance. The philosophy of every self-pitying alcoholic in the country.

That is not at all an accurate summary of the position Stringjack explained.

[Mr.De-Regulation]

What solutions?

This thread is about the topic "property is theft" not solutions to other problems without resorting to property theft!!

On a thread long ago I explained that these problems can be treated with charity, and have been before.

More recently, I explained to you how this problems can be taken care via the current state system we have now.

At the start of the thread, I explained how we could change the government system to avail of this problem.

[sarahj]

On a thread long ago I explained that these problems can be treated with charity, and have been before.

More recently, I explained to you how this problems can be taken care via the current state system we have now.

At the start of the thread, I explained how we could change the government system to avail of this problem.

I have told you that charity obviously doesn't work as the incentives are not right. That's why we have more starving people than ever.

The current state system can make things slightly better, not "take care of" it.

And your third point isn't even a readable sentence. How would we AVAIL of the problem?



Once again however, you are off topic. Start a new thread if you want to discuss this. This thread is about the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the concept of property rights.

[Hazlitt]

Well, no. You've broken a branch and used it to knock down some apples. 'Labour' is a shorthand term describing an action or set of actions

Are you claiming that "breaking a branch" and using it to "knock down some apples" aren't "actions" and this isn't labour - of course it is! Just because I'm not building a rocketship doesn't change that fact!

Me, I suppose. You can obviously just assert premises and argue from them - arguments have to start somewhere.

My hypothetical example in the previous post didn't include you in the field. Nevertheless if lets say you were to make a claim on something like the stick, either I'd take you to court or you'd take me.

Suppose, in your example, that you put the stick aside for a moment in order to eat your apples. I then pick it up and walk off. At that point, you seem to have three ways of trying to get the stick back - you could try to take it from me by force, you could offer me something in exchange, or I could give it to you as a gift. Why would I think that you have any right to the stick that I did not also have?

I have dealt with this case two or three times in previous posts - this is a case of theft that needs to be brought to court obviously much like it is in the modern world we live in! Please don't bring up the same example in your next post, we've dealt with this issue.

[sarahj]

I have dealt with this case two or three times in previous posts - this is a case of theft that needs to be brought to court obviously much like it is in the modern world we live in! Please don't bring up the same example in your next post, we've dealt with this issue.

But why is this a case of theft if you have just taken it from a tree that you did not own? How has it become yours? I still don't get it...

[SoldierofDestiny]

Many thinkers, such as Proudhon and even a Saint have held to this position, though Marx (surprisingly!) disagreed with it on the grounds that it assumed the existence of property and so was self-refuting.

Brissot de Warville has also written, in his Philosophical Researches on the Right of Property, "Exclusive property is a robbery in nature".

There is a short article on the Glasgow anarchist about this concept - Property is theft! Proudhon 200 years on

Of course, the economist has a contradictory article called "imitating property is theft". Counterfeiting | Imitating property is theft | Economist.com

Property is the engine of our nation - silly talk.

[sarahj]

Property is the engine of our nation - silly talk.

Oh wow. What would we have done without that contribution?!

I gues the conversation is over now