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You'd expect property owners to be entitled to build on their titled property, yet somehow this has turned into a pejorative. It reminds me of people arguing f
by brbsix 10y ago
You'd expect property owners to be entitled to build on their titled property, yet somehow this has turned into a pejorative.
It reminds me of people arguing for higher taxes accusing others of being selfish. Yes, it's completely selfish that someone would like to keep the money they've earned and yet completely selfless that you feel you have a right to it.
Down and down we go into opposite land.
- aninhumer 10y ago> Yes, it's completely selfish that someone would like to keep the money they've earned Well yeah. The very concept of ownership is inherently selfish. It means you want there to be a particular set of resources you get to use, and no one else. It's pretty much the definition of selfishness. Not that I think this is a bad thing, but if you're trying to argue with this particular rhetorical framing, you're going to lose hard.
- WalterBright 10y agoHow is it not equally selfish for someone to claim they are entitled to other peoples' money?
- freyr 10y agoBecause it's more selfish?
- rbanffy 10y agoNot at all because it's not "I am entitled to your money" but "everyone's entitled to everyone's money".
- aninhumer 10y agoUntil you have a property system there is no "other people's" stuff.
- Houshalter 10y agoWell we do have a property system so what are you trying to say?
- aninhumer 10y agoThat expecting there to be "your stuff" is already inherently selfish, so trying to argue that particular reallocations of "your stuff" are selfish is kind of ridiculous.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Houshalter 10y agoAnd now we are back where we started, with why is it selfish for me to claim it, but not you? Without property rights, no one has any right to anything and the world would be anarchy. There is nothing selfish about property rights. If you make something, and want to use it, that's not selfish. If someone else comes and demands you give it to them instead, that is selfish.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago> Not that I think this is a bad thing, but if you're trying to argue with this particular rhetorical framing, you're going to lose hard. I think you missed the other half of the sentence: > and yet completely selfless that you feel you have a right to [the money someone else earned]
- aninhumer 10y agoThe other half of the sentence only makes sense within a property system. My point is that the very act of saying "That's mine, you can't have it" is already incredibly selfish.
- brbsix 10y agoTaken to this extreme (wherein private property is selfish), human life is selfish. In living, you consume resources that no one else can use. As such, arguing that reallocation of your life (e.g. your death or enslavement) is selfish would be ridiculous.