Re: Why pay???

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 3:14 AM 4/5/96, Charles Bell wrote:

>The fact that you choose not to charge for your time does not make your
>time worthless.  The value your voluntary efforts add should be assigned
>due compensation even if you choose to waive it.

I didn't say my time is "worthless."

But the term "worthless" (and "worth" and "value" and suchlike) are not
defined in absolute terms, only in market terms. Commodities, including
labor, are valued by what others will exchange for them.

The notion that my efforts "should be assigned due compensation" is a
flawed view of how markets determine prices and wages. There is no
"assignment" absent a market.

(On the other hand, I certainly will not object if Charles calls together
his like-minded friends, evaluates my postings over the past several years,
and "assigns due compensation." Hey, it won't cost me anything. But somehow
I doubt I'll see any of this due compensation that Charles and Company
assign to me.)

This gets into economic issues, so I'll drop it here. I just wanted to
correct this misapprehension that I was claiming my time is "worthless."

>The failure to take such contributions into account is one of the most
>serious flaws in all current economic paradigms.  I think this will become
>more apparent in decades to come, as old concepts of `work' and `jobs'
>obsolesce.

All the more reason to get beyond our current system, where governments set
minimum wages, impose salary freezes, sue companies for charging too much
(or too little) for products, and interfere in economic transactions in
many other ways.

With strong cryptography, at least the purely crypto-anarchic transactions
will be this way.

--Tim May


Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
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