Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 26, 2009 0:55:45 GMT -5
mises.org/story/3009
If freedom is a necessary condition for the full development of the individual, it is by no means the only requirement. Society itself must be sufficiently developed. No one, for example, can become a creative physicist on a desert island or in a primitive society. For, as an economy grows, the range of choice open to the producer and to the consumer proceeds to multiply greatly.[2] Furthermore, only a society with a standard of living considerably higher than subsistence can afford to devote much of its resources to improving knowledge and to developing a myriad of goods and services above the level of brute subsistence
Murray N Rothbard, 1970, Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism and the Division of Labor.
__________________
A metal spoon. Imagine the society that could mass-produce a metal spoon. How many people and industries would have had to exist for this to be possible?
The population is quite small. All of them spend all of their time raising crops and animals to feed their families. There is no time left for anything else.
Then someone decides they should gather one evening per week to hold religious services. Just for an hour or two. Some wonder if this was a good idea, whats wrong with worshipping at home just before bedtime? But its just a couple of hours in the evening and people would be able to walk home while its still daylight and cook dinner and go to bed.
Boys meet girls at this religious gathering, even though under tight control and never let loose for a moment, they can make goo-goo eyes. Interestingly the population gets married earlier and have more babies in the next generation or two.
These extra children were tough to take care of but soon they could help around the farm. This meant fewer chores for ma and especially pa. This meant pa could tinker, ma could sew and things people didn't have time for before.
Soon the Townsmen had the extra time to finish building a whole new structure dedicated to religious worship. Soon though some women decided that children should learn to read earlier, before they were much use on the farm besides feeding chickens and collecting eggs. Just a few hours here and there at first.
Somewhere in a shack behind a house someone was figuring out how to extract metals from ore. All those strange rocks that they once had to clear from fields. Someone else was figuring that if he only could have better tools than an axe or knife he could do some nifty things with wood.
With more time on their hands people started doing other things, some even learned to write. It was tough to use burned sticks to write on flat rocks though. Sheepskin was far too valuable to use for that purpose.
As the population level grew people could spend more and more time doing other things than gathering food. This was an impetus for technological progress. If we could save time, we could use it doing this or that. For many things it would be trial and error.
Too bad poor Richard tried to drink that boiled root, his entire body went numb, he was knocked out more than a day. People thought he was dead and someone even began to dig a grave in the potters field. He was fine once he woke up though. Wonder if that stuff could be used for something? Crazy old man going around eating and drinking strange concoctions.
Check history: Crazy old men are good for technological progress.
Of course this is all based on the idea of freedom and individuality, otherwise they'd just be ants. Nobody cares what happens to an ant.
If freedom is a necessary condition for the full development of the individual, it is by no means the only requirement. Society itself must be sufficiently developed. No one, for example, can become a creative physicist on a desert island or in a primitive society. For, as an economy grows, the range of choice open to the producer and to the consumer proceeds to multiply greatly.[2] Furthermore, only a society with a standard of living considerably higher than subsistence can afford to devote much of its resources to improving knowledge and to developing a myriad of goods and services above the level of brute subsistence
Murray N Rothbard, 1970, Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism and the Division of Labor.
__________________
A metal spoon. Imagine the society that could mass-produce a metal spoon. How many people and industries would have had to exist for this to be possible?
The population is quite small. All of them spend all of their time raising crops and animals to feed their families. There is no time left for anything else.
Then someone decides they should gather one evening per week to hold religious services. Just for an hour or two. Some wonder if this was a good idea, whats wrong with worshipping at home just before bedtime? But its just a couple of hours in the evening and people would be able to walk home while its still daylight and cook dinner and go to bed.
Boys meet girls at this religious gathering, even though under tight control and never let loose for a moment, they can make goo-goo eyes. Interestingly the population gets married earlier and have more babies in the next generation or two.
These extra children were tough to take care of but soon they could help around the farm. This meant fewer chores for ma and especially pa. This meant pa could tinker, ma could sew and things people didn't have time for before.
Soon the Townsmen had the extra time to finish building a whole new structure dedicated to religious worship. Soon though some women decided that children should learn to read earlier, before they were much use on the farm besides feeding chickens and collecting eggs. Just a few hours here and there at first.
Somewhere in a shack behind a house someone was figuring out how to extract metals from ore. All those strange rocks that they once had to clear from fields. Someone else was figuring that if he only could have better tools than an axe or knife he could do some nifty things with wood.
With more time on their hands people started doing other things, some even learned to write. It was tough to use burned sticks to write on flat rocks though. Sheepskin was far too valuable to use for that purpose.
As the population level grew people could spend more and more time doing other things than gathering food. This was an impetus for technological progress. If we could save time, we could use it doing this or that. For many things it would be trial and error.
Too bad poor Richard tried to drink that boiled root, his entire body went numb, he was knocked out more than a day. People thought he was dead and someone even began to dig a grave in the potters field. He was fine once he woke up though. Wonder if that stuff could be used for something? Crazy old man going around eating and drinking strange concoctions.
Check history: Crazy old men are good for technological progress.
Of course this is all based on the idea of freedom and individuality, otherwise they'd just be ants. Nobody cares what happens to an ant.
