Re: Einstein on socialism [was: Re: Dyson (Was: Paths to Uploading)

David A. Kekich (kekich@twd.net)
Sat, 09 Jan 1999 14:30:24 -0400

Mike Linksvayer wrote:
>
> "David A. Kekich" wrote:
> > Maybe he came to his conclusions because he never really profited from
> > his grand discoveries, while lesser mortals got rich selling widgets and
> > hitting home runs. A purely capitalistic economy would have enriched
> > him. Then he probably would have been a capitalist. The inequality of
> > the system might have simply pushed him towards socialism. Maybe he
> > never gave it as much thought as most assume.
>
> 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.

Dave