[Avodah] Evaluating Nezek nowadays without slave markets

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 25/08/16 20:28, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
> why is it not appropriate to see what an investment group would pay
> TODAY to own all the future earnings?

There is no such market, because once the person has been paid there would
be no way to force him to go on working.  Anyone given such a deal would
immediately retire.  He would have no further reason to work.  If he had
to work he'd be lazy and uncooperative until he got sacked.   Slavery
presents a similar problem, but there are partial solutions.  One can never
get the full value out of a slave, but one can get a large proportion of
his value, and that is built into the market price (which is a flaw in
the method for assessing nezek, but it's the best Chazal could come up with).
But with a free man one could never get anything out of him, so nobody would
ever offer such a contract in the first place.


-- 
Zev Sero               Meaningless combinations of words do not acquire
zev at sero.name          meaning merely by appending them to the two other
                        words `God can'.  Nonsense remains nonsense, even
                        when we talk it about God.   -- C S Lewis