--- In LibertarianEnterprise@yahoogroups.com, "Gary F. York" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In the case you present, the individuals are better pleased by > the set of goods they now hold subsequent to theft than they were > prior. But they would almost certainly have been displeased by the act > of theft itself -- the violation of their person and property. Does the > pleasure of holding a preferred set of goods offset the displeasure of > the theft?
Doesn't matter. And here is why: Suppose one guy steals the red thing, and the other guy steals the green thing, and now they both have what they prefer. To that extent, they are both "better off", but there is no more Wealth in the world than before. Okay, there can be more than one "definition", or Use of the word "Wealth", so let's call yours Wealth-9 and mine Wealth-0. In this case, since there is no more goodies in the universe than before, there is no more Wealth-0 than before, although you will say that there is more Wealth-9 than before, OR WOULD BE if we didn't consider the subjective Displeasure of being robbed. Now, you said that there would in many cases be LESS Wealth-9 in the universe because of the Displeasure of being robbed (for in the cases where there is More, my argument is valid). So let's consider the case where the parties are so very Displeased by the act of being robbed that the Displeasure overpowers the increased Satisfaction. So where are we so far? One guy robs the other, then the other guy robs the first guy, and both now have goods that they prefer to what they had before, yet they are so Displeased that overall there is less Wealth-9 (which by Definition means that there is less Satisfaction than before). Okay, now suppose that some third guy steals BOTH Veeblefetzers, and he is so delighted that he has a heart attack. The police find the goodies and return them to their rightful Owners. Hmmm. Gosh, both guys now have exactly the same Stuff (Wealth-0) that they had before (ignoring a few minutes of pleasant or unpleasant mutual robbery, which is impossible to quantify). Yet there is far less Wealth-9 in the Universe than before. Is this what you really think most people think of when they think "Wealth"?
