From: Ian Goddard (Ian@Goddard.net)
Date: Sat Jan 09 1999 - 13:57:30 MST
At 02:30 PM 1/9/99 -0400, David A. Kekich wrote:
>> There is no certainty that a purely capitalistic economy would
>> have enriched Einstein. Perhaps he would have found it easier
>> to make lots of money. Producing "good stuff" isn't enough --
>> you have to get other people to pay you for your stuff.
>> Discoveries in theoretical physics are pretty hard to leverage
>> into a really large fortune.
>
> Under pure capitalism, use of ideas without compensation would be
>theft. Einstein would have eventually prospered.
IAN: Not necessarily. There's a school of thought
that argues from libertarian axioms (or purports
to do so) that copyright, patents, and trademarks
are artificial-government-fiat monopolies that are
contrary to strict property rights. For example,
this libertarian school argues that to copyright
your book decrees that I can't arrange my property
(ink and paper) in a given way, and telling that
to me is a violation of my property rights. I'm
not an advocate but an opponent of that school,
and am just noting its existence for the record.
Suppose that a person invented (or "discovered")
an equation that resulted in fusion energy, would
they properly have a right to claim a fee from
any who profited from that equation? Maybe not.
Which is not to say it wouldn't be appalling if
the guy enriched many others and died a pauper.
************************************************************
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------------------------------------------------------------
(+) Something can come from nothing, if, and only if, (-)
(-) that something is equal to nothing ((-)+(+) = 0). (+)
____________________________________________________________
"[I]n any closed universe the negative gravitational energy
cancels the energy of matter exactly. The total energy, or
equivalently the total mass, is precisely equal to zero."
- + - + Dr. Alan Guth (The Inflationary Universe) + - + -
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