The world isn't always zero sum. The most important thing produced in the past 50 years is made out of sand. Before the application of skill and knowledge it was just worthless sand. Afterwards it becomes important, valuable, and sought after. In many cases that just application of skill and knowledge takes something that was not a resource previously and turns it into a resource. In this way, the resources in the world increase despite living on the same marble we lived on yesterday.
Of course there is good and evil, and just and unjust. You can create something worthwhile through self control and grit and skill and knowledge or you can extract from other people's works without adding much at all. It's true that at this moment in time the latter is disproportionately winning the game. Historically it doesn't last forever, and it's likely we're seeing a turning point.
Of course there is good and evil, and just and unjust. You can create something worthwhile through self control and grit and skill and knowledge or you can extract from other people's works without adding much at all. It's true that at this moment in time the latter is disproportionately winning the game. Historically it doesn't last forever, and it's likely we're seeing a turning point.
Funny that you mentioned water, because that's a fantastic example of a renewable resource. I can drink as much water as I want, it's going to get pulled out of the lake, I'm going to borrow it for a bit, and then it's going to re-enter the ecosystem in the same lake that we pulled it from.
Growing up, I had the skill to fix things that were garbage for most people... They'd be about to throw a broken thing out, and they'd give it to me instead because they knew I tinkered with things. If I couldn't fix it, it would go to the garbage, but if I could fix it then suddenly people would want it back, even though that wasn't the deal. I eventually learned that if I was going to fix something, I should wait until after the person who gave me the thing couldn't see I'd fixed it to try.
You could say "but those are limited atoms and you're depriving others of them!" And be mad at me for stealing another person's valuable item, but I didn't steal anything. It was bound for a landfill and I was the last step before it was sent there, and I saved it from the landfill for a while longer. It was literal garbage, and the application of skill resulted in it no longer being garbage. The amount of value in the world increased, at least for a while.
I see something similar around a lot of resources. Some people will consume even something like a house, the thing will be destroyed once they're done with it. Other people improve upon it, and the thing is a better thing for having been held by that person. Land that would be useless and ignored is instead cultivated, and so something worthless becomes something of value. It may be "the same land", but it isn't really. The amount of actual valuable stuff in the world increased.
Of course, there is no value without an observer with a set of values to deem it so. Nothing is valuable without a subjective judge to deem it so. Whether it's a pile of sand or a pile of e-waste or a pile of refurbished electronics or a pile of brand new electronics, it's all just sand until someone sees a purpose in it. This is why value can be created by something otherwise worthless.
Growing up, I had the skill to fix things that were garbage for most people... They'd be about to throw a broken thing out, and they'd give it to me instead because they knew I tinkered with things. If I couldn't fix it, it would go to the garbage, but if I could fix it then suddenly people would want it back, even though that wasn't the deal. I eventually learned that if I was going to fix something, I should wait until after the person who gave me the thing couldn't see I'd fixed it to try.
You could say "but those are limited atoms and you're depriving others of them!" And be mad at me for stealing another person's valuable item, but I didn't steal anything. It was bound for a landfill and I was the last step before it was sent there, and I saved it from the landfill for a while longer. It was literal garbage, and the application of skill resulted in it no longer being garbage. The amount of value in the world increased, at least for a while.
I see something similar around a lot of resources. Some people will consume even something like a house, the thing will be destroyed once they're done with it. Other people improve upon it, and the thing is a better thing for having been held by that person. Land that would be useless and ignored is instead cultivated, and so something worthless becomes something of value. It may be "the same land", but it isn't really. The amount of actual valuable stuff in the world increased.
Of course, there is no value without an observer with a set of values to deem it so. Nothing is valuable without a subjective judge to deem it so. Whether it's a pile of sand or a pile of e-waste or a pile of refurbished electronics or a pile of brand new electronics, it's all just sand until someone sees a purpose in it. This is why value can be created by something otherwise worthless.
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I have a bad habit of drafting and redrafting posts long past the point that it's beneficial to do so, and in the process I end up cutting a lot of good ideas that probably should have stayed in.
The big thing that I didn't mention before that I should have is that we need to be very careful not to throw out something that's good because it can be used for evil. It is inarguable that there's a massive disconnect between the productivity of the common worker and the wages of the common worker. There is a graph that whatifalthist on YouTube routinely shows that shows the disconnect between wages and productivity that shows that despite being more productive than ever before, the common worker is getting wages that are not commensurate with that. So it's inarguable that the common man is getting screwed and inappropriate amounts of wealth and power are going to a tiny number of people.
That being said, that is the evil but the fact that something can result in evil doesn't make it inherently evil, especially when that same thing can and has resulted in some of the greatest good in history.
Proper capitalism is almost communistic. People only make money when things are working properly when they do something or provide something that other people want more than they want that money themselves. That's the only way to make a profit in such a situation is to help others.
A few of the wealthiest people on the face of the planet actually did get to their position at least initially by doing that. Jeff bezos for example really was instrumental in changing the world for a lot of people around the world. There's a lot of stuff that simply wasn't available to purchase at any price in a lot of areas, and suddenly with the help of Amazon it's a very reasonable price and two days shipping away.
On the other hand, there is an old saying that you can become a millionaire through honest hard work and innovation, but you can't become a billionaire. A lot of the people who became Rich beyond imagination were relying on systems that aren't fundamentally fair. The rules for a megacorp and a rules for startup, not to mention the rules for startup that isn't part of the blessed caste out of silicon valley are all quite different. I won't get into it because this post is already getting too long, but that unequal treatment is dangerous, and results in winners and losers being picked separately from merit. You end up with a sort of modern feudalism, with all powerful deities at the top, and abused serfs at the bottom, and God help you if you aren't even in the system.
The big thing that I didn't mention before that I should have is that we need to be very careful not to throw out something that's good because it can be used for evil. It is inarguable that there's a massive disconnect between the productivity of the common worker and the wages of the common worker. There is a graph that whatifalthist on YouTube routinely shows that shows the disconnect between wages and productivity that shows that despite being more productive than ever before, the common worker is getting wages that are not commensurate with that. So it's inarguable that the common man is getting screwed and inappropriate amounts of wealth and power are going to a tiny number of people.
That being said, that is the evil but the fact that something can result in evil doesn't make it inherently evil, especially when that same thing can and has resulted in some of the greatest good in history.
Proper capitalism is almost communistic. People only make money when things are working properly when they do something or provide something that other people want more than they want that money themselves. That's the only way to make a profit in such a situation is to help others.
A few of the wealthiest people on the face of the planet actually did get to their position at least initially by doing that. Jeff bezos for example really was instrumental in changing the world for a lot of people around the world. There's a lot of stuff that simply wasn't available to purchase at any price in a lot of areas, and suddenly with the help of Amazon it's a very reasonable price and two days shipping away.
On the other hand, there is an old saying that you can become a millionaire through honest hard work and innovation, but you can't become a billionaire. A lot of the people who became Rich beyond imagination were relying on systems that aren't fundamentally fair. The rules for a megacorp and a rules for startup, not to mention the rules for startup that isn't part of the blessed caste out of silicon valley are all quite different. I won't get into it because this post is already getting too long, but that unequal treatment is dangerous, and results in winners and losers being picked separately from merit. You end up with a sort of modern feudalism, with all powerful deities at the top, and abused serfs at the bottom, and God help you if you aren't even in the system.