My v-e-r-y f-i-r-s-t entry into the world of blogging, courtesy a surprise invitation from blogger extraordinaire Patterico to help him out by posting something “interesting” on his site while he was on holiday. Fortunately for Patterico, he also inv…

Groups are individuals also. No individuals, no groups. The collectivist fallacy lies in thinking that a group is more than an individual. It isn’t.

Socialism isn’t just a philosophy, it is a religion.

I’d say its much easier to use someone else’s intellectual creation without their permission than to use someone else’s land without their permission.

If wealth is *created*, rather than merely “picked”, it invalidates the socialist world-view. One reason for the slow demise of the socialist world-view is that our increasingly sophisticated economy creates most wealth “out of thin air”, in the form of intellectual property and services. You might argue that one farmer is more successful than another because his land is more fertile - an injustice easily remedied (as seen in Zimbabwe). But it is much harder to confiscate the sources of a doctor’s, an artist’s, or even a skilled salesman’s wealth. You can only tax the profit, which ultimately gets put to the test of practical economics.

Socialists believe that the creators of wealth ought to be entitled to distribute it. As an oversimplification, they just believe that labor creates all wealth.