Reply #2: Not sure I agree. Economics seems really pretty simple to me

[Tansy_Gold]

I guess I subscribe to what's called a labor theory of value, in that nothing becomes useful/valuable until we invest some labor to make it useful/valuable. Therefore even the most natural items -- animals, vegetables, minerals -- have no use/value until labor is invested in them, even if it is only the labor of pulling a piece of fruit off a tree.

"Wealth" seems to me to be merely an accumulation of things of value, and again, none of it can be accomplished without labor; not necessarily the labor of the person owning or acquiring the wealth but someone's labor.

The question then becomes, who owns the fruit of one's labor?



TG, who has a pretty good idea. . . . .