https://archive.freecapitalists.org:443/forums/8.aspxDiscussion of political theory.enCommunityServer 2008.5 SP2 (Build: 40407.4157)https://archive.freecapitalists.org:443/forums/thread/294264.aspxThu, 21 Jan 2010 23:30:40 GMT944abf2b-d1be-4bf2-990d-438cb0e377e9:294264Ryan0https://archive.freecapitalists.org:443/forums/thread/294264.aspxhttps://archive.freecapitalists.org:443/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=8&PostID=294264<p>&quot;A thing rendering such unlimited services is, for instance, the knowledge of the causal relation implied.&nbsp; The formula, the recipe that teaches us how to prepare coffee, provided it is known, renders unlimited services.&nbsp; It does not lose anything from its capacity to produce however often it is used; its productive power is inexhaustible; it is therefore not an economic good.&nbsp; Acting man is never faced with a situation in which he must choose been the use-value (a.k.a. praxeology definition of utility) of a known formula and any other useful thing.&quot;<br />-- Human Action (P.128)<br /><br />Since property has to be scarce, it is by definition an economic good.&nbsp; Since property is under the category of economic good, and the quoted logic shows that a thing rendering unlimited services is not an economic good, prove to me that knowledge of causality is not such a thing that can render unlimited services without exhausting itself.&nbsp; A patent is merely the knowledge of causality, or have I over-simplified the category of patents?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>