Anarcho-Bicyclist Conference Manchester April 2011

i found this comment on a blog, i wonder if these kind of questions are at the forefront of hipster consciousness every time the buy or sell an aerospoke or heavy 531 conversion with a dented top-tube?
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"Risk and investment have value too, not just labor. And there is no way to prevent risks and investments from having profit potential unless you artificially influence prices.

Let's say I have a brand A bicycle and my friend has a brand B bicycle. His bicycle is in worse shape, and if someone where to go out buying bicycles today mine would fetch a higher price. Still, I think certian things about brand B bicycles might become more valuable in the future than they are now. Maybe it has hand-painted pinstripes, which I notice are becoming more and more rare.

So, I take a risk and make an investment by offering to trade my bicycle for my friend's. I even explain my reasons for wanting to trade, but he agrees anyway because he would like something of more value now and he has no interest in engaging in the risk that I am engaging in.

Ten years down the road I find that brand B bicycles are selling for several times what brand A bicycles are selling for. My investment has paid off, but the appreciation of value has had nothing to do with my labor (that is, if you don't consider market research to be labor).

I have not read much Proudhon, but it seems like I have just met his definition of theft. Both parties agreed to the transaction, and both were informed. I haven't stolen from anyone, and yet I have still somehow committed theft.

And there is no way to prevent people from profiting in this way unless you set up a system where supply and demand have nothing to do with how items are traded or purchased. How could an anarchist accomplish this without violent government intervention?"*