Hi All:
The debate on the above subject is interesting and prompts me to share two
quotes from J. Bronowsky with the 'future-work' list as follows.
"Man survived the firece test of the ice ages because he has the
flexability of mind to recognise inventions and to turn them into community
property." Ascent of Man by J Bronowski. PP 46
That means to me that the opposite would also hold true, both as to
survival and community property.
I don't know how many readers participated in the birth of the computer
era, but some may recall the part played by the old Vic 20 and the Commodor
64 with it's 1540 disk drive. Many a current geelk executive got their
start in computers because the software was so readily copiable. Yes, I
mean piracy. Those who now most passionately insist on copyright and
patents are the very ones who cut their eye teeth on illegally copied
software.
But then the story is the same with the Bronfman dynasty with the
smuggeling of boose. Also the original David Rockefeller, whose morally
outragous corporate (Standard Oil) manipulations initiated the anti-trust
laws which he promptly evaded by moving "off-state" (equal to present
"off-shore"). Why continue?
"The new evil that made the factory ghasty was different: it was the
domination of men by the pace of the machines. The workers for the first
time were driven by an inhuman clockwork: the power first of water and then
of steam. It seems insane, it was insane, that manufacturers should be
intoxicated by the gush of power that spurted from the factory boiler
without a stop. A new ethic was preached in which the cardinal sin was not
cruelty or vice, but idleness. Even the Sunday Schools warned children
that 'Satan finds some Mischief still For idle Hands to do'." Ascent of Man
by J Bronowski. PP280
It was Max Weber (1864-1920) who promoted the above 'work ethic' in
hisbook, "The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism".
"According to Weber, the Calvinist doctrine of business success as a sign
of spiritual salvation justified the desire for profits." - World Book
Encyclopedia. (My appologies to Calvanists)
The question has been posed about the right of inventors to benefit from
their inventions. I would agree but with some conditions.
If it is agreed that patents are private property and that they in fact
have value, there should be no objection to having them taxed as property.
The same condition would apply as to real property. If the tax cannot be
paid, the property is sold to satisfy the debt. That or it falls into
public domain.
I also suggest that patents expire in a much shorter time.
Where once a new and patentable idea took 10 years to proceed from
University to the manufacture, my understanding is that it is now a short
two years. That leaves an inadequate time for a manufacturer to capture
investment before a new invention preempts it.
If we had a proper definition of property and tax all property, including
real, patents and equity shares, the tax burden would be greatly reduced
(increasing the tax base). It would also cause the equitable taxation of
the $billions now exempt.
The great economic disenfranchisement of the fifth estate took place with
the passage of the enclosure laws in England. Where, before the passage of
those laws, people could establish homesteads on open (public) lands. After
the enclosure laws were passed all the land was claimed by the Crown as its
private property. The Crown granting of land to Courtiers and Courtisans
(of both sexes, including abstract economic ones) allowed them to throw the
"homesteaders" off the land (where they were subsisting by our standards),
forcing them into the urban areas where they were quickly employed as
factory workers.
Those who 'religiously' resisted their own enslavement were persecuted,
criminalized and sent to Australia or encouraged to emigrate to the N.A.
colonies.
The U.S. spirit of independance was rooted in those pilgrims who persued
their economic independance with religious zeal, even to the point of
martyrdom.
Our presently distorted apportioning of ownership of property is
predicated on the principal of "minority rule." The minority rule due to
two pol. sci. trueizims, (1) the majority can never get their act together,
and (2) dictatorship is always easier than democracy.
Ed G
===============
Peace and goodwill
Ed Goertzen,
Oshawa, ON, CA
L1G 2S2,
905-576-6699
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Timocracy: A form of governance known in ancient Greece that means
"government by the worthy". While at that time 'worthy' meant property
owning, there is no reason not to define it as "those who want to
participate in the none partisan formation of, and administration of public
affairs in addition to electing represenatives." To be followed by firm
advice to their elected representatives and reporting back to electors.
For further information contact Ed Goertzen at >>[EMAIL PROTECTED]<<
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