Wealth Is Not Constant

ALLOW me space for some words about the confusion voiced by the young man who wrote a placard with the text “Kill All Whites” for a demonstration.

He explained his ideology in The Namibian of October 10, seeing himself as a revolutionary who works for Black Africans’ repossession of wealth. The idea of using violence today for creating a paradise tomorrow is not very new.It is what psychopathic and self-glorifying dictators usually do, and always with the same result: humanitarian disaster.The implicit economic theory the ideologist leans on is heavily misconceived.He seems to think that there is a constant amount of wealth of which some people have taken too big a slice that should be taken back.But wealth is not constant.It is something that is created and recreated every day through initiative and organised and coordinated activity.When the activity comes to a halt, the wealth deteriorates very quickly.Many African countries have tried to repossess and redistribute wealth by nationalisation and it has shown to be a recipe for creating poverty.The nationalised companies go downhill into dysfunction and bankruptcy.The buildings become dilapidated.The cure has been re-privatisation that leads to new initiatives, investments and job creation, that is, it leads to the organised and coordinated activities that make up the continuous creation and recreation of wealth.Fair distribution has its place but it works only as long as new cakes are baked every day.Goran Linde Sao Marcos da Serra PortugalThe idea of using violence today for creating a paradise tomorrow is not very new.It is what psychopathic and self-glorifying dictators usually do, and always with the same result: humanitarian disaster.The implicit economic theory the ideologist leans on is heavily misconceived.He seems to think that there is a constant amount of wealth of which some people have taken too big a slice that should be taken back.But wealth is not constant.It is something that is created and recreated every day through initiative and organised and coordinated activity.When the activity comes to a halt, the wealth deteriorates very quickly.Many African countries have tried to repossess and redistribute wealth by nationalisation and it has shown to be a recipe for creating poverty.The nationalised companies go downhill into dysfunction and bankruptcy.The buildings become dilapidated.The cure has been re-privatisation that leads to new initiatives, investments and job creation, that is, it leads to the organised and coordinated activities that make up the continuous creation and recreation of wealth.Fair distribution has its place but it works only as long as new cakes are baked every day.Goran Linde Sao Marcos da Serra Portugal