Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)

Randy Howard wrote:
> Arthur J. O'Dwyer wrote
> (in article
> <Pine.LNX.4.60-041.0508241405430.3383@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):
>
>
>>>What if you do not want anyone else to benefit from your labor?
>>>What if you are a greedy ***
>>
>> Well, that's the point. If you're a greedy ***, then you /are/
>>a greedy ***. Your choice of words indicates that you at least
>>acknowledge the morality-oriented view
>
>
> I was being sarcastic. Everyone wants money to survive (with
> the possible exception of someone living off the land in the
> wilderness, with no taxes to pay), even the guy begging on a
> street corner living in a box wants people to give him some. If
> it is immoral to try and make money, then everyone on the planet
> is immoral, in which case there isn't much point in worrying
> about it. I happen to not believe that trying to provide
> funding for yourself and any family members for food, shelter,
> clothing, etc. is immoral. If you believe otherwise, I'm keen
> to hear why.
>

This is an old and pointless argument. The socialists say that the highest
state of man is to have everyone share what they have freely, and man will
be without want. The capitalist system, in the socialist view, is a
stopgap that only exists because people don't understand that they would
have everything if they just gave up their little greedy ways, and we
should all work toward that goal.

The only problem is that each time this theory has been applied, the results
are disaster.

The reason that capitalists and socialists can never be reconciled is because
the socialists believe inequity is bad, and capitalists believe inequity
is good, and makes the system work.

The only thing new here is that Mr. Stallman asserts that the socialist
system, which failed in general, will work in the specific case of programming
because "no inherent physical form exists". However, capitalism never needed
a physical form of any kind to work, just as socialism never needed a physical
form to not work.

Stallman and company assert that they are not attempting to "redo socialism
again". Whatever merits that argument may have, one thing is clearly being
redone in the new "software socialism" movement, that is a clear
misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of how capitalism works.

GNU arguments never cease to generate a lot of mail when they exist, and
there is a good reason for that. Any discussion involving religious matters
generates controversy. And the assertation of an entire system of human
endeavor without practical proof, but rather based on belief, is certainly
religious, and is never going to be settled. Instead, it will be (as in
most religious matters) outlived.

.