Let Your Light So Shine

In response to a student's comments about some people believing that their poverty is caused by the wealth of others.

There is a very strong tendency for people to think of economics as a zero sum game. Until about 200 years ago, that perception was correct and became very deeply engrained. Until 200 years ago the primary productive asset was land. And like the saying goes "they aren't making any more." If someone had land that meant that others did not. Land is the ultimate rivalrous asset. One person's control excludes others.

200 years ago, in some places things began to change. With the development of the scientific method, the development of intellectual property rights, and systems that encouraged innovation as change, we began to move from land being the ultimate asset to mind and knowledge being the ultimate asset.

On this point, Thomas Jefferson said:

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/10/06/thomas-jefferson-on-patents-and-freedom-of-ideas/

As we move farther and farther from a zero sum world into a world where my wealth does not make you any poorer (assuming I do not take my wealth by force or deceit), those who still hold the old beliefs about economics being zero sum take steps to protect their taper, thinking that lighting another will make them poorer.

		March 7, 2007 *Let Your Light So Shine*
	In response to a student's comments about some people believing that their poverty is caused by the wealth of others. There is a very strong tendency for people to think of economics as a zero sum game. Until about 200 years ago, that perception was correct and became very deeply engrained. Until 200 years ago the primary productive asset was land. And like the saying goes "they aren't making any more." If someone had land that meant that others did not. Land is the ultimate rivalrous asset. One person's control excludes others. 200 years ago, in some places things began to change. With the development of the scientific method, the development of intellectual property rights, and systems that encouraged innovation as change, we began to move from land being the ultimate asset to mind and knowledge being the ultimate asset. On this point, Thomas Jefferson said: If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/10/06/thomas-jefferson-on-patents-and-freedom-of-ideas/ As we move farther and farther from a zero sum world into a world where my wealth does not make you any poorer (assuming I do not take my wealth by force or deceit), those who still hold the old beliefs about economics being zero sum take steps to protect their taper, thinking that lighting another will make them poorer.