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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Serious issues
  • Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 21:47:06 EST


> >But (classic)capitalism 'requires' growth, does it not?

A common misconception, but, no, it doesn't. Interest income requires
growth, but that's the only aspect of our present form of capitalism that
does.
Unfortunately we've come to the point that most capitalistic income in this
country (and much of Europe, and all of Iceland) was from interest and not
from the
delivery of any tangible goods or services.

Originally "capital" meant mainly land, tools, materials, and tangible
resources. You could even include intellectual property in that. It has
evolved to
mean cash and human labor. I, for example, own my own tools, my own shop, my
own resources (trees), and I purchase the rest (steel pins, wire, bronze rod,
etc) straight out, that is, I do not make a separate profit on those items
when they are resold as part of the finished product. I do not need to grow
and
I certainly have no desire whatever to grow.

The key to that is I materially participate in my business. Or as Franklin
has it in Poor Richard's:

"He who by the plow would thrive
Himself must either lead or drive."

In no-growth capitalism, one cannot sit on one's butt and wait for interest
income to come rolling in. There's no lure to get in on the ground level of
something unless you are personally willing and able to build all the other
levels yourself. There is no economic advantage in population growth nor
massive
immigration. There is a huge economic dis-incentive to depelete or damage
resources.




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