From: Dickey, Michael F (michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com)
Date: Fri Dec 06 2002 - 12:48:06 MST
From: Damien Sullivan [mailto:phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu]
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 1:42 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: fruits of Bill Gates labor worth $50 billion
On Fri, Nov 15, 2002 at 10:00:32AM -0500, Dickey, Michael F wrote:
> own productive gain? If 1 million people all think his product is worth
10
> dollars to them, then he now would have 10 million dollars. What if 10
> million people all think it is worth $100 dollars to them? Who are you to
"Say someone owns all the farmland in a country. A million people might
give
him $10 for the right to grow food on his land. Or $100, if he raises the
rent. Does that person deserive the $100 million? He's not doing anything,
he just controls the land. Similarly Gates controls the right to copy MS
software.
-xx- Damien X-) "
You are confusing property rights to intellectual property rights. I am not
disputing the validity of intellectual property right laws, I don't know
enough to comment on the issue intelligently, but under the presumption that
they are valid, I do not compare gates 'controlling the right' to reproduce
the product of his mind with a someone 'owning' all the farmland in a
country. In what kind of situation could anyone ever actually own all the
farmland in a country? A massive communist or socialist state is the only
place in which such a thing has ever happened.
In whatever case, Gates is producing something and selling it to people who
choose to give him money for it. Without restarting the whole bill gates
debates, replace him with any wealthy person producing a product, and to
remove the issue of intellectual property rights, consider someone who
manufactures lollipops, for instance. Is he worth 10 million dollars? Well
if 10 million people want to give him a dollar for his lollipops, who are
you to say that they can not? And the only way you can say it is with the
threat of force.
The issue is whether or not a 3rd party has the right to dictate how much a
buyer can give a seller for his product. If you believe they do, you
advocate socialist centralized economic control, if you believe they do not,
you advocate individual freedom. People who complain that gates (or any
wealthy person) has too much money (excluding gates legal issues) are by
necessity implying that they have the right, by force, to dictate to me how
much I want to pay for the product of another mans mind. That is
corruption, disrespectful of individuals, and as far from freedom as one can
get.
Michael
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