Originally Posted by sperbonzo

This is patently untrue. People act in their own self interests... EVEN YOU. If I set up a scenario whereby it is better for you and your family to move rather than stay, you will move. Unless of course you are self-destructive and a masochist. For example if you were Jewish and it was 1939, you would probably want to leave Germany.



I could just ask that you simply read more, but let me put this line of logic to you. If wealth is a zero-sum game, then all of the wealth in the world would have existed from the beginning of time. The fact is that "wealth", or "value" is derived anytime a new product or service is created. An empty field is worth very little. If you cultivate it and produce food with it, you have created "wealth", you haven't taken it from anybody. If you sell your goods at market, then you are increasing the wealth of the community. If you find coal and iron on your land, and you create products from that, you are creating new wealth, NOT taking if from someone else.




Apparently you aren't able to tell the difference between two very different concepts. "Wealth" and "value" are attached to things that people want or need. They are relative values, not absolutes. As I pointed out above, more wealth is created simply by more products and services entering the flow of an economy, NOT by taking if from one person and giving it to another.
People, on the other hand, are absolute objects. There are a certain number of people within an economy who will tend to rise to great wealth because of their abilities and their inclination to take the risks and do the work inherent in creating new wealth within that economy.

There is no contradiction here. The concept of "wealth and value" in an economy is an abstract. People are real things. If you kill a person and bury them, they are gone forever. If you take all the money and bury it, wealth will still exist in the form of new goods and services, even if you have to resort to the barter system.


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