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Both Island Natives survival depends on the shelter and food Island Native #1 has created so they could be considered as wealth.
So we are changing the variables of the question? If that is the case then it depends on how one defines wealth, simple material improvements or an abundance of valuable assets. For the purposes here, I don't have a problem with your redefined criteria.
So we are changing the variables of the question? If that is the case then it depends on how one defines wealth, simple material improvements or an abundance of valuable assets. For the purposes here, I don't have a problem with your redefined criteria.
wealth is not static, but natural resources are limited. There is only so much oil and gold in the world. You can't build more of it.
wealth is not static, but natural resources are limited. There is only so much oil and gold in the world. You can't build more of it.
Well this could lead to a very complex philosophical debate. Does wealth have permanence? If it does then one could argue that wealth can be created, but if wealth is transient then whatever wealth is created eventually is lost within a closed system. For example, we have accounts of ancient civilizations creating great cities, and massive "wealth" but for the most part that "wealth" has returned to the dust that it was created from. If what is created returns to its original state, in a sense wealth is static since there is a finite amount of resources from which to create it.
How's that for an utterly etherial if not metaphysical argument (something I rarely venture into).
In your example, you need to start by asking where person no. 1 acquired the resources to accomplish the tasks described. If that person worked for someone (who, perhaps, lives off the island) for pay, then resources were transferred from the employer to the employee in the form of wages or salary. If person no. 1 inherited the resources, then they were transferred to them via that inheritance. If person no. 1 took possession of those resources from what had been communal (or, at least, un-owned) resources, then they have unilaterally transferred those resources from nature to their own portfolio.
However you frame it, there is no increase in wealth. There is simply a transference of wealth.
Well this could lead to a very complex philosophical debate. Does wealth have permanence? If it does then one could argue that wealth can be created, but if wealth is transient then whatever wealth is created eventually is lost within a closed system. For example, we have accounts of ancient civilizations creating great cities, and massive "wealth" but for the most part that "wealth" has returned to the dust that it was created from. If what is created returns to its original state, in a sense wealth is static since there is a finite amount of resources from which to create it.
How's that for an utterly etherial if not metaphysical argument (something I rarely venture into).
I like your answer a lot more. Look at the brain on ovcatto
Well thanks for contributing absolutely nothing to the discussion other than a baseless and unsupported accusation.
What a waste...
Sorry for bursting your bubble that Marx was a liberal who believed wealth didn't grow, unless, as another member stated, you were referring to Groucho.
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