Post
Topic
Board Politics & Society
Re: The end of copyright and patent is where we should be headed
by
jaysabi
on 06/03/2015, 20:25:24 UTC
I support capitalism, but it seems you don't.
Of course I don't, I loathe violence and capitalism could not exist without systemic violence.

It seems to me you're conflating voluntary employment with forced employment.
There is nothing voluntary about employment so long as non-employment means starvation and homelessness for the vast majority of workers.

If everyone started out on equal financial footing at birth, you might have an argument. Since we don't, and since only the privileged few can afford to start their own business (repeatedly as needed since 8 out of 10 fail), your argument has no merit.

I don't buy either of your premises. Capitalism at its core is voluntary exchange; an entirely voluntary system in which the initiation of violence harms all. Crony capitalism, in which special interests pay for the use of force by the government to enact their will, is neither voluntary nor capitalism. The fact that you see so much crony capitalism is not proof of failure of a voluntary system, it's evidence the government shouldn't be granted the power to interject in the market place to create winners and losers.

Non-employment doesn't mean starvation and homelessness. Non-productivity, on the other hand, does. You can be unemployed and productive, in which you create things the market desires, and are compensated accordingly (keeping the whole fruits of your labor). But your inability to make a living on your own is evidence of you not producing anything the market desires. That's no one else's fault or burden, best to sell your labor at that point to someone who can produce something of value with it where you can't. I don't know what your particular problem is, but I can start a business with ease, it's neither expensive or difficult. I just have nothing to create the market would desire, so I'm better off selling my labor to someone who can use it to create something of value. No one forces you to work, but no one owes you anything either when you don't.