Re: "Investment adviser asks if wealthy are necessary"

Mark M. wrote:
lysander@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Without state ownership people have to exert labor to extract rent that is why it is property.

???

By definition economic rent is not produced by labor.


I know that quite well. Rent by definition is profit above normal gained from legally granted market advantages or from the characteristics of the land. Labor does not create rent but labor extracts rent. Just as labor does not create gold but labor extracts gold from the mine.

Nonsense. Your argument says because I picked the berry I deprived the berry from someone who says they would have had picked the berry but did not so I should compensate. This is like saying if I buy the last chocolate bar in the store I have to compensate all of those who claim they would have paid the price but did not.

Rent arises from competition for sites. If there is no competition for picking berries from a particular site, there is no rent, no exclusion, and therefore no compensation for exclusion.


Rent does not arise from competition. It is created when lower grades of land are put into use or the government grants a firm a market advantage. You can have no rent in picking wild berries.

My picking a wild berry does exclude people from using it. It is mine I can tell you not use it and my eating the berry prevents you from using the berry. Like land a wild berry is the produce of nature and it is rival and excludable.



Your argument is if I go pick all the berries in the forest then I must compensate those who claim they would have done that but did not. Instead of being compensated for my labor I have to give away berries FOR FREE to compensate those who would have picked the berries but sat on their ass and did not.

You arguement is that once I plow the field and extract rent I must give up a portion of the proceeds of my labor to all of those who claim they would have plowed the field and extracted rent but did not. That is socialism you punish the productive to give to the lazy.

Economic rent is by definition not a direct product of labor. A plowed field is an improvement.


YOu still do not understand. Labor must be applied by someone for rent to be extracted. A raw diamond is not produced by labor but they don't just come up out of the ground and lie around either. You have to do something to obtain them. The same goes for rent.



"To drop a man in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and tell him
he is at liberty to walk ashore, would not be more bitter irony
than to place a man where all the land is appropriated as the
property of other people and to tell him that he is a free man,
at liberty to work for himself and to enjoy his own earnings."

--Henry George, Social Problems.

http://schalkenbach.org/library/george.henry/sp10.html#p-20


The gospel of Saint Henry George asserts it therefore it is true.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Investment adviser asks if wealthy are necessary"
    ... Without state ownership people have to exert labor to extract rent that is why it is property. ... Your argument says because I picked the berry I deprived the berry from someone who says they would have had picked the berry but did not so I should compensate. ... He can go and farm the barren land if he wants but is willing to pay to use the better land so he does. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: "Investment adviser asks if wealthy are necessary"
    ... By definition economic rent is not produced by labor. ... did not so I should compensate. ... Rent arises from competition for sites. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Income from a tax on land.
    ... > Owning land that yields rent does. ... LEARN WHAT RENT MEANS. ... All wealth is produced by labor. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Labor theory of cost
    ... Land has no cost. ... I labor LESS for the net personal benefits I ... opposed to Ricardian rent. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: "Investment adviser asks if wealthy are necessary"
    ... By definition economic rent is not produced by labor. ... Rent by definition is profit above normal gained from legally granted market advantages or from the characteristics of the land. ... Just as labor does not create gold but labor extracts gold from the mine. ... If there is no competition for picking berries from a particular site, there is no rent, no exclusion, and therefore no compensation for exclusion. ...
    (sci.econ)
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