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Quote by Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“The real cost of something is its value in alternative uses. This truth always presents itself in prices. There is no benefit that may be gained without cost to the same individual who gained the benefit. There is no benefit that may be presented without cost to the same individual who present the benefit.”

Quote by Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

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Principles of a Permaculture Economy

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Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

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“The distribution of wealth and income is primarily the role and responsibility and freedom of individual people and businesses through their voluntary economic interaction with other people and businesses. And their voluntary exchange of economic value through products, services, and ideas. In this way, social mobility is maximized and a fluid class structure allows for both upward and downward economic movements; this is social justice.”

“Substitution competition is a natural limit or control on prices. In a permaculture economy, every useful product or service in a market coexists with a variety of substitutes. There is a point to which monopolies become uneconomical/ unprofitable. Almost every product or service, or their inputs, may be used for a variety of purposes by a variety of consumers, If the price (a) causes there to be more or less consumption of (b) then a and b are substitutes. Substitution competition eventually causes monopolies to shrink or fail , or creates new market space which renders the previous monopoly relatively smaller in size and therefore not a monopoly in the context of the expanded economy”

“Value is determined by individual buyers and sellers. There is no item or service which has a fixed or definite value. Because circumstances, scenarios, and objectives vary indefinitely; value also varies indefinitely. Peacoats are very valuable to people in Michigan, but have much less value to the residents of Texas. The reason why is simply because it gets much colder more often in Michigan than it does in Texas, and coats of any kind are rarely required in the warm climate of Texas. If a regulator were to say that sellers in Michigan can not sell peacoats for a higher price than they are sold in Texas, they would be perverting the market. Without price fixing, the price for peacoats would likely be higher in Michigan simply because the demand for that product is higher there. Value is subjective in the same way that needs are subjective”

“When the individual people have the freedom to engage in permaculture activity, the effect is that ultimately the standards of living are improved for everyone, such that poverty is ultimately eradicated and even the people with the least among all still enjoy considerable wealth. When government or central planning agencies forcefully redistribute wealth, it has the ultimate effect of eradicating wealth such that eventually most people among all are poor; while even those people who have some temporary riches do not have real wealth”

“In regard to what is best for individual people and for society as a whole; ownership of the means of production should belong predominantly to individual people. This is necessary for the people's freedom to be maintained. And, their freedom makes it possible. When the government/state controls of the means of production, the conditions for tyranny are created.”

“From the perspective of society as a whole, there is no fixed or objective need aside from those broad categories required for survival. Rarely, if ever, is there a fixed quantity or definite quality demanded. This is why the needs of individuals are best met by other individuals according to supply, demand, and the price mechanism. And this is why most of the needs of individuals cannot be met only by central government.”

“There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away the things she won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because that's when the birds scream and the worms crawl and somewhere in her mind it's always raining a slow and endless drizzle. You will hear that she has left the country, that there was a gift she wanted you to have, but it is lost before it reaches you. Late one night the telephone will sign, and a voice that might be hers will say something that you cannot interpret before the connection crackles and is broken. Several years later, from a taxi, you will see someone in a doorway who looks like her, but she will be gone by the time you persuade the driver to stop. You will never see her again. Whenever it rains you will think of her.”