Quote from: FredericBastiat on August 29, 2011, 11:03:15 PM

Quote from: bitcoin2cash on August 29, 2011, 10:28:25 PM

Don't confuse copying with taking. If I copy your hairstyle, I haven't taken anything from you. You don't suddenly become bald. The only thing you don't have is the ability to profit but that was never something you owned anyways. The fact you can profit off of something is a function of everyone else valuing what you have to offer. You aren't owed a profit just because you feel that way.

Well said. No one is entitled to a profit.

It seems there are two ways you can "profit"; both of which are still personal opinions, best I can tell. Profit and value are similar abstract mental constructs.

1) Profit arises from the opinion that if whatever objects or services you exchanged with another, is, in your mind, of greater value than that property which you previously possessed, you had a gain.

2) In a similar vein, if in the process of modifying the composition of property you already own (the raw physical material), you believe the property conditionally changed for the better, you also profited.

Does profit require human-to-human interchange to qualify?

Frederic we live in a knowledge economy where people are given the right to profit from investment in research. You seem to think that pretending only material matter has value gives you the right to insist the rest of society to pretend only material matter has value. You don't have that right. We exist in society and 1 person does not have the right to tell others how to live.

Even if you did have the right to dictate to society how to live, your logic is specious. 'Being "hostile" or "violent" behaviour requires force and energy.' is your statement. So if I come into your home and refuse to leave I am not being hostile? Any taking of property without consent is hostile and a society frowns on it. Taking the outcome of someone else's work, which they have made a legitimate investment in, and reselling it for your own profit is hypocritical.