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A comment on In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build. Parent comment

Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by aninhumer on Saturday April 16, 2016 @10:42PM (#11513260)
> 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.

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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by brbsix on Sunday April 17, 2016 @12:04PM (#11514999)
Taken 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.
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by thaumasiotes on Sunday April 17, 2016 @02:46AM (#11513752)
> 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]

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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by aninhumer on Sunday April 17, 2016 @06:27AM (#11514070)
The 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.
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by WalterBright on Sunday April 17, 2016 @02:33AM (#11513727)
How is it not equally selfish for someone to claim they are entitled to other peoples' money?
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by rbanffy on Sunday April 17, 2016 @03:56AM (#11513842)
Not at all because it's not "I am entitled to your money" but "everyone's entitled to everyone's money".
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by freyr on Sunday April 17, 2016 @03:20AM (#11513797)
Because it's more selfish?
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by aninhumer on Sunday April 17, 2016 @06:20AM (#11514059)
Until you have a property system there is no "other people's" stuff.
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by Houshalter on Sunday April 17, 2016 @08:27AM (#11514297)
Well we do have a property system so what are you trying to say?
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by aninhumer on Sunday April 17, 2016 @09:33AM (#11514437)
That 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.
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Re:In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build by Houshalter on Sunday April 17, 2016 @01:31PM (#11515365)
And 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.

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