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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
The garden isn't going to plant itself, nor will it irrigate itself if there isn't enough rain, nor will it take care of its own pests beyond its existing evolutionary mechanisms, nor will it harvest itself, nor will it store the harvest adequately to prolong its shelf life. This requires labour. Though, as far as those tomato plants are concerned, it's not like they require some guy to sit beside them and turn a crank to get them to grow. So it's a bit from column A and a bit from column B: the creation of this wealth is dependent on land and labour.
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Do you do this on purpose? Wasn't I clear enough when I said that in some circumstances the labor input can be constant, the capital input constant, but that real wealth can be created. Never did I say it could happen without labor or capital. And, note the example was in direct response to a point you made, to take my point out of context seems a bit wrong to me for anyone wanting a serious discussion. But, I guess you have already made it clear that these things are so simple that they are not worthy of serious discussion - and some wonder why severe unemployment persists in the US.
---------- Post added at 03:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by filtherton
Don't get all metaphysical on me here. Financial wealth has meaning. Though when I said it, I mean something other than its common meaning. I mean it as wealth that can be monetized. My family is an example of wealth that can't be monetized. "Financial wealth" actually means something else, but my point is valid for either meaning.
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Monetized wealth or however you state it, is meaningless. The financial crisis is a perfect example illustrating how wealth measured in fiat currency can change in an instant. One day a guy has millions of dollars of wealth in real estate and the next day it is zero or negative.
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My point being that you can have all the wealth in the world, but unless you have someone who is willing to give you something of value for that wealth, it isn't actually worth anything in the wider economy.
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I think that view is too narrow.
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Why aren't they investing, Ace? I'll tell you: they aren't investing because there isn't demand.
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They are not investing because of excessive and unknown risks due to political uncertainty. For people who invest capital it mostly boils down to math. Eliminate uncertainty, reduce risk and the results from the equations change, making it attractive to invest.
Give an example of when demand drives real wealth creation. The printing press was mentioned in this thread. At the time there was no demand for books. when the record player was invented, there was no demand for records. When the PC was invented there was no demand for PC's. When Facebook started there was no demand for Facebook!
---------- Post added at 03:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:17 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Well, at least we know that taxes aren't really the problem.
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Raising taxes won't solve Greece's problems.