[extropy-chat] Authenticity, extropy, libertarianism, and history

[Damien Sullivan]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 11:50:45PM -0700, Damien Sullivan wrote:

> I just wanted to note that I've been having a growing sense of the diversity
> of meanings of 'liberal' and 'conservative'.  In particular, outside the US
> 'liberal' seems to mean 'markets', and something like a safety-net

Also
http://www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=537

   6. The challenge of lean government.

   The age-old misconception that it is government's business to organise
   people's happiness is heading for crisis, if not collapse, all over the
   world. In most industrialised countries, exaggerated and ill-targeted
   systems of social security and redistribution threaten to break down, and
   state budgets to impose ever-increasing debt burdens on future
   generations. In developing countries, attempts to promote development
   exclusively or predominantly by government action are bound to fail,
   through overloading government and stifling private initiative, the only
   factor that can produce really sustainable development. Liberals recognise
   that the capacity of government is limited, that 'big government' and the
   growth of state expenditure are themselves serious threats to a free
   society, and that limiting the scope of government and retrenchment of
   government spending must therefore be given priority.

which is frankly more anti-big-spending than I expected.

-xx- Damien X-)