[ExI] Private and government R&D

[Dan]

--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Eschatoon Magic <eschatoon at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 8:28 PM, Dan<dan_ust at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > --- On Wed, 7/1/09, Eschatoon Magic <eschatoon at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>> Instead of making a religion war of
>>> this, how about simply
>>> acknowledging that both private and public R&D
>>> funding
>>> have their roles?
>>
>> While that sounds like the wise course, the point
>> under debate was whether one is better at delivering the
>> goods as well as whether each has certain path dependencies.
>> (I didn't use the term "path dependencies," but this was
>> what I meant by pointing out that a voluntary system would
>> likely have R&D funding, but not in exactly the same way
>> as the current coercive system.)
>>
>> There is also the problem that under the coercive
>> system, some people are forced to pay for others' pet
>> projects.  Some might find no problem with this, but I
>> think that's relevant to the discussion because coercion
>> introduces certain features that wouldn't be found under a
>> voluntary system.
>
> What are "the goods"? To whom, when,
> how, and at what price, they are
> "delivered"? And first of all, what is "better"? I think
> wine is
> better than beer, you may think beer is better than wine.
> There is one
> sane solution: I drink wine and you drink beer.

Yes, and that's the voluntary solution, no?  The coercive solution would be for you or I (or some third party) to come in and tell us what to drink regardless of our individual preferences.
 
> There are many types of cohercive systems. I can force you
> to do what I say by pointing a gun, or by withdrawing a loan.

To me, that's reasoning that would justify rape by saying she was forcing me to rape her because she withheld sex.  To wit, there's a big difference between someone not funding your pet project -- presuming it's her or his money we're talking about and it doesn't violate any voluntarily arrived at agreements or contracts -- and someone stopping you by threatening you with a gun.  Notably, with the not funding, you can always seek other sources of funding.

Regards,

Dan

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