Re: What do workers compete for?

On Fri, 14 May 2004 01:07:37 GMT, "Robert J. Kolker"
<robert_kolker@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>royls@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
>
>> The soil that was already there.  Right.  Thank you for admitting that
>> you lied.
>
>Salty soil cannot be used to grow anything.

But it is still there without having been created by human labor.

>It has to be leached and 
>"sweetened". In short, land claimed from the sea, at great effort, wit, 
>labor and capital has to be worked on even further before it can be used 
>at all.

But it had to _be_there_first_.

>Most of what is found in nature cannot be used as it is found. It has to 
>be worked on. A tree (non fruit bearing) has to be cut down, debarked 
>and sliced into boards before it can be used to build with.

That activity is called "production."  It has to start with
_pre-existing_ resources called, in economics, "land."

>Oil has to 
>be extracted at great expense with sophisticated machinery. Then the 
>petroleum has to be distilled, again at great expense and effort with 
>cleverly designed equipment.
>
>In short, there is very little free in nature.

It's _all_ free, until those who did not produce it are privileged to
charge others for access to it.

>Maybe water, maybe air 
>but almost everything else has to be sweated over and worked on.
>
>TANSTAAFL -- The ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Oh, but there is.

Situation 1: A man works to get his lunch from a nut tree growing in
nature.  No free lunch there.

Situation 2: A man works to get his lunch from that same natural nut
tree, but this time he must pay another man, who did not plant the
tree but claims to own it, enough nuts for his lunch, in rent.  The
worker must work twice as long, so that the tree's owner will get a
free lunch.

Landowner privilege, in a nutshell.

-- Roy L