Response: Equality of Property


Abstract:
Reader response and comment.

Body:
Aaron sent me the following comment in response to my previous post:

"The situation you describe of the early settlers having access to more land than they can use is characterized by abundance. This is more of a feature of the environment than politics. In other words, political equality flows from an environment of abundance, not the other way around.

If we want to bring about true political equality, we need to change the environment. Nanotech assemblers may be able to create this environment - at least for a while. Who knows what happens after that."

I can't remember why I didn't say that myself, or why I even went so far as to say I had never heard of one that could work, but I agree with Aaron. If we eliminate scarcity, political equality may follow, but this is a position that needs greater explanation (not to be unfair to Aaron, his e-mail wasn't intended to be an essay—just a quick response). After all, other people argue that political equality will follow from free markets, but I think it's clear that this is untrue except under special conditions. And even if nanotech assemblers would create political equality, it's unlikely to be balanced with the resulting existential risk.

Posted: Fri - January 19, 2007 at 02:26 PM         |    

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