[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Re: Market forces, state ownership (Re: Even M**x showed signs of authoritarianism?)

[Terry W. Colvin]

At 11:19 AM 4/18/2006, Beth Wolszon wrote:

>>>You seem to have the mentality of Fred: - I managed to make it,
>>>so the system works and all the losers who cannot make it
>>>are just lousy lazy thickos who deserve to suffer.
>>
>>An attitude so common among US "libertarians" that it could be 
>>promulgated as The Libertarian Creed.
>
>I've always taken their motto to be: "I got mine, Jack - the hell with you."

Pretty much the same thing. The Libertarians I know (and I use the 
upper case "L" for a reason) cast it in terms of superior knowledge 
and ability. They were "smart" enough to plan for the future, and 
"smart" enough to invest wisely, work hard, etc., and anyone who, 
say, had a child develop a catastrophic disease resulting in medical 
bills which bankrupt them obviously weren't "smart" enough, and those 
losers should be allowed to eat cat food if they don't have enough 
money to both eat and meet their other bills.

Though I may just be meeting the true lunatic fringe.

>My favorite bit with libertarians came from a radio show hosted by 
>Jesse Ventura before he ran for state governor. He had the chair of 
>the state's Libertarian Party on as a guest. After letting the guy 
>spout off about rights and freedoms and explaining that Libertarians 
>believed that gov't shouldn't compel contributions to the public 
>good via taxation, but instead rely on voluntary contributions, 
>Ventura asked the guy two questions:
>
>1. How many people were registered members of the State Libertarian 
>Party? (It was in the tens of thousands.)
>
>2. How many people made political donations to the Libertarian Party 
>in the past year? (Just a couple thousand, far fewer than the number 
>of actual registered Libertarians in the state).
>
>Jesse noted that proved the failure of the Libertarian Party's 
>premise that people would willingly voluntarily pay their fair share 
>of the costs of government. Since, as he pointed out, they had one 
>hell of a lot more people voting Libertarian than they had 
>voluntarily contributing to the Libertarian Party.

Precious.

I'm convinced that the liberty so beloved by USAnian Libertarians 
(upper case "L" used deliberately again) is the liberty to be a free rider.

Cheers,

LRC


-- 
 Brokaw says he draws his directness from his red-blooded American
 childhood. (Between him and Little Russ [Tim Russert], NBC must pass
 red-blooded childhoods out at the door.)
                --Bryan Carter [slate.com, on retiring NBC anchor
                  Tom Brokaw]  




-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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