🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:55:38 -0400, "robert j. kolker"
<nowhere@nowhere.net> wrote:

>royls@telus.net wrote:
>> 
>> The lying morons who take it upon themselves to defend the injustice
>> of landowner privilege _always_ trot out the idiotic notion that land
>> value is somehow different from everything else in the world, and
>> cannot be measured. 
>
>Land is a commodity.

No, it is not.  A commodity is a good whose units are
indistinguishable for economic purposes.  Each land location is
unique.
 
>The value of land is what it will fetch in an exchange.

But "will" (or as I put it, "would") fetch is not the same as "has
fetched."

Let's say a conscientious appraiser appraises a land parcel at $1M.
The land is then sold at an auction of which only a few poor people
and one rich one have been notified.  The rich one is the only one who
shows up, and he gets the land for $1K (the minimum bid increment).
Is that the land's value, or is $1M more accurate?

>There is no instrinsic value to any commodity. There is only exchange value.
>
>That is my view of the matter.

I wanted you to confirm that you are evil, by agreeing that you
believe slave owners should have been compensated for the loss of
their unjust privilege when slaves were freed, but freed slaves were
rightly not compensated for the systematic violation of their rights
before they were freed.  Alternatively, you could confirm that you are
evil by lying about your opinion on this matter.

>Land and butter differ only in that land is not made from simpler stuff 
>by humans (except for the Dutch who made land from the seabottom).

They did not make land.  They just dried it out.  As I have informed
you of this fact before, on a number of occasions, your claim now
constitutes a lie.

>The value of land is value added.

Any value added by the owner is improvement value.

>It is the value you will exchange with 
>me for land I claim or the value of the effort you will exert to take it 
>from me by force. Either way, as soon as I fence it and claim it, land 
>has acquired a value that it does not have when it is unoccupied.

A fence is an improvement, and may or may not add value.  A claim of
ownership is just notice of your intention to violate others' rights,
and adds zero (0) value.

>If you 
>want it from me, make me an offer I won't refuse, or bring your army.

I have as much right to it as you.  If you want to stop me from using
it, compensate me for the loss of that opportunity, or bring your
army.

-- Roy L