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- Path: sparky!uunet!psinntp!jptcs!bbs!Jarett.Weintraub
- From: Jarett.Weintraub%bbs@jptcs.com (Jarett Weintraub)
- Newsgroups: misc.entrepreneurs
- Subject: Re: America doesn't have a clue: (was DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN? - Off track!!)
- Message-ID: <153@jptcs.COM>
- Date: 3 Jan 93 18:40:35 GMT
- References: <1992Dec18.205739.11193@doug.cae.wisc.edu> <thomasd.42.724959481@tps.COM> <1992Dec21.215358.4886@netcom.com> <C09n9t.Jv4@quake.sylmar.ca.us>
- Sender: bbs@jptcs.COM
- Reply-To: Jarett.Weintraub%bbs@jptcs.com (Jarett Weintraub)
- Lines: 32
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-
- In message <C09n9t.Jv4@quake.sylmar.ca.us>
- dated 3 Jan 93 06:56:16 GMT
- brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:
-
- > In article <1992Dec21.215358.4886@netcom.com> strnlght@netcom.com (David Ster
- nlight) writes:
- >
- > >Thomas Day is correct in pointing out, in effect, that free trade is not
- > >an ethical or moral principle, but is an economic principle we have
- > >been taught, based on some fundamental assumptions.
- >
- > Really? Do you really think that the question of whether a man ought to
- > control the product of his labor is a moral question? It is certainly
- > one with economic implications, but it IS a moral issue. I should
- > point out that if one concludes that from a moral perspective, the
- > products of one's labor ought to be controlled by the society in
- > general rather than by the one who produced it, the question of free
- > trade in the economic arena becomes moot.
- >
- > --Brian
- How far, exactly do you want to take THAT line of reasoning? After all, even
- if society isn't in control of one's labor, in free trade your company IS.
- Only if each person was a craftsperson or artisan, selling at a bazaar (be
- it an electronic or RL) could there be "true" control over the product of
- labor. It is the nature of assembly-line industrialization that almost
- no-one "owns" there labor, because almost no-one controls the entire
- production process. Yet, industrialization and free-trade seem to have gone
- hand in hand, so far. And BTW, I don't see control over ones labor as a
- moral issue at all, so much as fair compensation for it. (Unless you want to
- get into intellectual property rights, which is a much thornier issue).
-
- My opinions ARE my bosses. I own my business.
-