To Alter Or To Abolish
Chapter 21
Captured Labor
Written by Darrell Anderson.
All for freedom and for pleasure, nothing ever lasts forever, everybody wants to rule the world.
Tears For Fears, musical lyrics from Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Humans produce because they consume, and they consume because they desire to survive. The combined process of producing and consuming is an effort to sustain energy flows. Maintaining those energy flows means overcoming the challenges of scarcity, inefficiency, limited knowledge, and a general lack of self-sufficiency. The more efficient those efforts, the less energy needed to sustain those energy flows.
However, the relentless pursuit of efficiency has duped many people into grasping at the wind by trying to achieve perfect efficiency. Perfect efficiency is known as perpetual motion, and is a process of maintaining energy flows without additional input.
In the tangible physical world, creating perpetual motion is impossible. The Law of Conservation of Energy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics declare such a process impossible.[1] Because the observed physical laws of the universe prevent perpetual motion, humans are collectively destined to forever convert raw energy into usable energy to satisfy their pursuit of happiness. In a system where humans are forever inefficient and not self-sufficient, humans are compelled by natural causes into productive labor and peaceful exchange in order to survive and satisfy their pursuit of happiness. Everybody becomes a “prisoner” of that natural system. There is no escape from those naturally existing physical laws.
With scientific and technological advances humans now produce more efficiently than at any time in known history. In the future humans likely will invent self-intelligent machines capable of providing all the necessary productive labor to satisfy fundamental human needs and wants. However, such a system is not perpetual motion because the machines will consume more energy and materials than they produce, just like humans do now. Yet, from a strictly human perspective, such a system would appear to be perpetual motion. This is the never-ending direction in which human history has traveled — the desire to get something for nothing.
Understanding these energy flows is not only important to understanding human social and legal systems, but is important to understand why social and legal systems go awry and humans tend to find themselves in continual conflict with one another.
Humans are continually striving to eliminate all forms of productive labor in order to pursue creative labor. Every human attempts to live as much at ease as possible.[2] There are several ways humans attempt to offset the rigid laws described by physics and the requirement for productive labor. For example, humans learn to abstain — to forgo desires; that is, to modify their definition of their pursuit of happiness. People do this all the time — there are only 24 hours in a day and there are natural limits to consumption and production. Much of human life is a cycle of give-and-take.
Humans also create tools and machines to reduce the amount of necessary personal labor. Concepts such as levers and pulleys help humans produce more efficiently by improving energy conversion processes. More sophisticated tools such as farm reapers and computers also enable more efficient production. The methods of production determines the social relations or character of a society.[3] Improved efficiencies means less labor to perform specific tasks.
All living entities must consume more energy than they need because no energy conversion process is 100 percent efficient. Therefore, a natural tendency is all living entities try to store energy for future consumption, both internally and externally. Many animals store food reserves, especially animals living in environments where plant production stops for several months. Humans also possess this instinct to store energy for future consumption.
Through improved efficiencies humans learn to produce more than they immediately need or want. Creating or replacing wealth requires converting energy into work, either through direct labor or labor combined with tools and machinery. Through this overproduction humans strive to sustain energy flows by storing energy to offset the future needs of productive labor.
A conscious and subconscious goal of many people is to accumulate sufficient stored wealth to forego all future productive labor. This is a noticeable distinction between humans and other living entities. Other living entities do not try to create a perpetual storage of energy, but only sufficient storage to promote near-future survival. Unfortunately, the laws of nature limit perpetual storage because all wealth is subject to decay.
Because humans use a concept of money, to bypass that natural limitation humans attempt to store sufficient exchange power as a means of later obtaining future wealth. Power is the rate at which work is performed. Exchange power is anything representing the ability to exchange wealth for wealth.[4] Through this accumulation of exchange power humans attempt to secure sufficient stored wealth to forego future productive labor.
Another way of sustaining energy flows and stockpiling wealth is to increase exchange power by increasing knowledge and improving skills. Specialization encourages the division of labor and permits humans to collectively produce more efficiently. Increased knowledge and improved skills also raises an individual’s perceived value to produce, which helps negotiate a larger return in exchanges of wealth.
Few individuals today are self-sufficient or even partially so. To sustain energy flows, dependency upon other humans is high. Therefore, the need for exchange power is high. Because of the high division of labor, people are in a continual quest to accumulate exchange power to offset the requirements of future labor and the effects of decay.
The challenge of choices is sometimes referred to as an individual’s time preference.[5] Time preference is sometimes referred to as time horizons.[6] Accumulating exchange power displays a low time preference, a desire to forego consuming wealth today and a willingness to consume wealth tomorrow. If an individual’s time preference is high then the desire for immediate consumption and gratification will be high, if low then an individual is willing to forego consumption until later in the future. Time preference is a subjective process and can be defined only by each individual.
All of these efforts promote and strengthen mutual survival. However, despite increasing efficiency, none of these efforts negates the observable physical laws of the universe — nor can they. Perpetual motion is impossible. Therefore, humans have devised another way to reduce or eliminate the need for providing personal labor.
That final method of eliminating the need for providing personal labor is to use the production of other people. Humans can benefit from the production of other people voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntarily accepting charity and the good will of other people is one way individuals can sustain energy flows through the production of others.
Unfortunately, history is filled with many examples of humans capturing the productive labor of others by physically enslaving people. Historically, physical enslavement probably has been the most common means of reducing the requirements for personal labor, despite other available methods. Many civilizations have condoned and believed slavery to be a natural process. The foundation for such practices is built upon a two-fold belief:
- That outside groups of people are inferior because of differences in race, color, creed, or worldviews.
- That enslaved human labor is equivalent to using tools and machines to provide productive labor.
Slavery probably dates back to the early hunter-gatherer tribes, and is practiced by some animal species such as ants.[7] In those ancient times humans were much more group-centered than individualistic and slavery was considered natural.[8] Because of this group-centered thinking, slavery was condoned and embraced through much of human history. However, as humans matured in their understanding of the universe, the concept of individuality received more precedence. Regardless, an important difference between humans and animals that embrace slavery is animals do not stop their individual efforts to produce. That is, the enslaving animals continue to directly labor and participate in sustaining their energy flows. Humans tend to enslave others to avoid direct labor.[9]
The concept of individuality versus the group was a foreign idea to early hunter-gatherers, herders, and agrarians. The concept of individuality did not surface until the era of the Greek city-states when the Sophists and Epicureans popularized the idea.[10]
In ancient times, because of the tight social structure every individual was a member of a clan, tribe, or family. Individuality had little meaning to those early humans. A trespass was not a wrong committed against an individual but against the clan, tribe, or family because individuals found their identity in their local social group. Hence, the evolution of legal remedies such as the blood feud. The ancient Hebrew system of law was a major cornerstone in providing a formalized distinction between the individual and the group,[11] and formalized the concept of personal responsibility.[12]
Human slavery is merely a form of adversarial raw acquisition, a desire to avoid direct personal production. However, within human social systems, forcibly capturing the labor of other people is self-interest distorted into greed. Greed is the willingness to usurp property boundaries and enslavement trespasses the boundary of self. Enslavement is a process whereby humans treat other humans as mere resources rather than self-determining human beings. Enslavement is a process of ignoring foundational principles that support mutual survival and instead focuses on individual survival.
When discussing direct enslavement many individuals think of the ancient Hebrews in Egypt, the African Negroes in America, or the numerous colonies of European nations.
However, many individuals today also include “civic” enslavement such as conscription and compelled jury “duty.” The concept of conscription reduces to a simple question: who owns an individual’s body? The idea of conscription claims the individual does not, the concept of self declares otherwise. If conscription is tenable, then the concept of self is meaningless and the only remaining principle is “might makes right.” There is no in-between.
As the general social attitude toward physical slavery has changed greatly the past several hundred years, people have sought alternate ways in which to capture the labor of other people. Capturing labor need not be performed by direct coerced enslavement. Excluding the possibility of creating title to property through raw acquisition (hunter-gatherer) or the similar legal concept of first possession, there are only two meaningful ways people can sustain energy flows:
- Produce and voluntarily exchange.
- Appropriate the products produced by others — stealing.
Humans continually choose between the two methods, between peaceful exchange and adversarial raw acquisition.[13] Conflict usually arises when the second method is used to satisfy energy flows. Although ideally most people hope the first method will be the only one other people choose, many people nonetheless choose the second method if the benefits outweigh the risks of conflict.[14] Both methods are used regularly.
By definition, stealing is trespass, a forced transfer of property without the titleholder’s explicit consent. People can steal in several ways. The most obvious method is to steal directly from others without any attempt of exchange. This direct method is predatory violence. Such actions are raw acquisition using the interference mode.
The German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer called voluntary exchange the economic means of satisfying needs and wants, and forced exchange as the political means.[15] The former method implies persuasion and cooperation to obtain title to resources, the latter implies force and coercion — and often violence or the threat of violence. The former method implies moral power, the latter political power.[16]
The French Liberals of the early nineteenth century also recognized the distinction between voluntary and involuntary exchange, articulating that difference as a class struggle between warriors (bandits) and the industrious class (producers).[17] This struggle can be expressed in many ways: power vs. liberty, takers vs. producers, administrators vs. producers, force and coercion vs. persuasion and cooperation, idlers vs. laborers, predators vs. creators, moneyed elite vs. workers, exploiters vs. creators, status vs. contract, or rulers vs. the ruled. The political means is merely a way to sustain energy flows with minimal effort — the desire of getting something for nothing.
Deceit is another avenue for stealing. Deceit is another name for fraud. Individuals who purposely deceive create an illusion of acting within boundaries and without trespass although trespass nonetheless occurs. Deceit is a form of the political means of acquisition.
Individuals using the economic means peacefully regulate human interaction using knowable boundaries. Individuals using the political means create the illusion of boundaries. Individuals using predatory violence use no boundaries at all.[18] The political means is a process of operating under the color of law. Predatory violence operates under no illusions of law.
Stealing is a coerced exchange of property titles that increases a trespasser’s wealth and exchange power. Stealing can be accomplished directly in a predatory manner through a robbery or burglary, but also can be performed through more subtle methods such as the political processes of a society. Such actions include coerced wealth redistribution, strikes and lockouts, and war.[19]
The political means of storing wealth and future exchange power promotes crime — the willingness to intentionally trespass the boundaries of other people — and also gives rise to a desire to enslave others.[20]
Excluding the small number of people who choose predatory violence, individuals can sustain energy flows either through the economic or political means — through cooperation or conflict, thereby implying that all “class struggles” are conflicts between people who choose between one of those two means. Predatory violence is almost always an isolated individual affair. Thus, the endless clashes of human history are between those who prefer to use the political means versus those who seek the economic means. The struggles are between those who prefer force and coercion — with the ultimate threat of violence, and those who prefer persuasion and cooperation.
As humans devoted more energy and time to specialize in skills and the division of labor, storing wealth and future exchange power became more important. Because early hunter-gatherers, herders, and agrarians lived within small cohesive societies, they were people sustaining energy flows through the economic means or peaceful non-interfering raw acquisition. Only as societies and communities grew did the political means become a more viable avenue to sustain energy flows. As people pursued the political means, plunder and violence became more mainstream. The lack of ability or opportunity to store wealth and future exchange power often leads to a desire for localized survival. These efforts give rise to opportunities of violence and plunder.
All political systems provide opportunities to create virtual perpetual motion through the captured labor of other people — slavery and indentured servitude. Political systems provide opportunities to sustain energy flows by creating an illusion of legal or civil privileges or duties. All that is necessary is a fiat declaration and then coercing people into accepting that these illusions are justified.
Consider how slavery and indentured servitude is masked through political processes such as land zoning and regulation, entail, minimum wages, price controls, fixed or minimum price laws, occupational permits, coerced affirmative action, unlimited patents and copyrights, cartels, incorporation charters, associated protections through special legislation, subsidies, monopoly, anti-trust laws, eminent domain, coerced unions and closed shops, regulated educational systems, trade restraints, welfare, asset forfeitures, traffic citations, cash transaction laws, and taxation. The political means of sustaining energy flows is an attempt to bypass physical laws and to create a virtual perpetual motion machine through the labor of other people — to get something for nothing.[21] Capturing the labor output of other people is a sophisticated form of adversarial raw acquisition using biological interference rather than scrambling.
A popular means of people sustaining energy flows and capturing the labor of others is to create artificial scarcity. Creating artificial scarcity is a means of increasing fear, decreasing trust, and diminishing perceived security. Artificial scarcities encourage individuals to hoard and stockpile rather than trade and exchange. Artificial scarcities encourage destructive competition and increases conflict. All processes of creating artificial scarcity are proverbial unstable snowballs causing avalanches. The more artificial scarcities that exist, the more acute the problem becomes.
An example is manipulating market prices. Market prices are partially a function of the principle of scarcity. Thus, to create scarcity where none previously existed is to increase perceived value, which increases demand and desire, which raises prices, which increases gain. Increased gain can be stored for future consumption or exchange power, or reinvested to continue the process. Creating artificial scarcity is possible through occupational permits, closed shops and unions, unlimited copyrights and patents, land title distribution, and other forms of politically privileged monopoly. Creating such artificial scarcities is possible only by manipulating the political system.
Another means of creating artificial scarcity is through monopoly. The word monopoly implies using force and coercion to restrict competitive human action. A classic example of a “natural” monopoly is the small community with one general store, or electric power utilities. However, by definition, “natural” monopolies are not monopolies but only good fortune — the mere absence of competition. As long as free association and voluntary exchange are honored, any competitor can enter that market, nobody can be prevented from entering the market as competition, and consumers always can vote with their feet. There are natural limits to any natural monopoly because if prices are raised too high, competitors will be encouraged to enter that market.[22] The use of force and coercion prevents competition or consumer choice — a common outcome of manipulating political systems.
Another method of creating artificial scarcity is through manipulative speculation. Manipulative speculation can create an environment of perceived increased values and thereby increasing gain. Manipulative speculation increases uncertainty about the future and increases fear.
Sustaining energy flows through adversarial raw acquisition can be performed indirectly by limiting the demands on one’s own labor; that is, limiting liability for trespass. The concepts of self, property, rights, contracts, and consent all evolve from the desire to prevent trespass. Generally, people expect restitution for trespasses. Providing restitution requires additional productive labor and the socially compelled transfer of wealth to provide remedy. Limiting claims of trespass reduces the requirement to satisfy claims of trespass, thereby allowing for more productive labor for personal desires and increasing personal exchange power. Limiting liability is possible through consent and contracts, or is possible through artificial political privileges. Such artificial protections are provided through incorporation charters, political immunities and exemptions, and specialized legislation creating privileges.
The concepts of wealth and property are not necessarily the same. Intangible products of human action — knowledge and ideas — are not forms of property because the concept of property arises from the economic principle of scarcity. Knowledge is not scarce and is infinitely reusable. Only through artificial processes can knowledge be recognized as property, and only by creating an artificial scarcity in that knowledge. Sustaining energy flows through such artificial scarcity is possible through a concept known as intellectual property, and is manifested in processes such as unlimited patents and copyrights.
Sustaining energy flows often is pursued through fiat, totalitarian legal systems. Any statute or rule that is not derived from the principle of reconciling trespass — the concept of providing justice — is an attempt to create virtual perpetual motion through the captured labor of other people. Such rules are merely a way to allow force and coercion under the color of law and are forms of adversarial raw acquisition. Such rules attempt to create property titles to resources through privilege, artificial scarcity, and monopoly.
There are additional political but subtle ways of bypassing the laws of the natural world to capture the labor of other people. In addition to the numerous methods that a political system can be used to capture the labor of other people, manipulating monetary systems and controlling land titles allows individuals to subtly indenture people through privileges created within those processes. Those processes create artificial scarcity and increase uncertainty and fear about the future. Thus, people will use these processes in an effort to create huge stockpiles of future exchange power, rather than focus on production, trade, exchange, and peaceful coexistence.
![[Image: Author’s Pictorial Concept of Sustaining Energy Flows--The Virtual Perpetual Motion Concept of Property and Wealth. Important to the text.]](../images/energy_flows_property3.gif)
(Click to enlarge)
Figure 7
Understanding these simple observations about the natural world — that perpetual motion is impossible and energy flows must be sustained to maintain life — opens the door to understanding why social and legal systems fail. Those social and legal systems are deceptively manipulated to capture the labor output of other people — an effort to create virtual perpetual motion and offset the rigid laws of natural existence. Capturing the labor of other people is an effort to get something for nothing. All such efforts are cleverly disguised efforts to sustain energy flows through adversarial raw acquisition. Humans are destroying their lives, civilization, and planet because they refuse to acknowledge the many ways adversarial raw acquisition is today practiced and condoned.
Finis.
Next: Chapter 22 — Leviathan
Endnotes
[1] Soddy, Wealth, Virtual wealth and Debt pp. 50–52.
[2] Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, p. 81.
[3] Fromm, The Sane Society, p. 80.
[4] Soddy, Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, p. 81.
[5] Hoppe, Democracy, pp. 1–8, 10–15.
[6] Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions, p. 95.
[7] Zane, The Story of Law, p. 8.
[8] Zane, The Story of Law, p.55.
[9] Sumner, What Social Classes Owe, p. 27.
[10] Frost, Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers, p. 180, 185.
[11] Zane, The Story of Law, pp. 102–105.
[12] Zane, The Story of Law, p. 451.
[13] Hirshleifer, “Anarchy and Its Breakdown,” p. 26.
[14] Hirshleifer, “The Dark Side of the Force,” p. 3.
[15] Oppenheimer, The State, Chapter 1, Theories of the State.
[16] Adin Ballou, “The Superiority of Moral Power Over Political Power,” Dissenting Electorate, pp. 7–10.
[17] Weinburg, The Social Analysis of Three Early 19th Century French Liberals, pp. 50–56.
[18] Davidson and Rees-Mogg, The Great Reckoning, p. 54.
[19] Hirshleifer, “The Dark Side of the Force,” p. 3.
[20] Davidson and Rees-Mogg, The Great Reckoning, p. 59.
[21] Machan, Tibor R., “To Solve the Problem We Need Government Regulation,” Clichés of Politics, p. 55.
[22] Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, p. 42.