[ExI] To Arms!

Stathis Papaioannou stathisp at gmail.com
Sun Mar 29 11:52:35 UTC 2009


2009/3/29 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:

> It's also quite likely (in my opinion) that in those two
> states I gave that were relatively less corrupt, they
> possess greater trust, in Fukuyama's sense of the term.
> Diversity, quite a number of people are beginning to
> realize, reduces trust, creates divisions, and supports
> mutual hostility (despite the earnest pleadings of the
> media and propagation outlets (schools)).

Multiculturalism seems to work well in Australia and Canada, and I'm
sure in many parts of the US.

> I have to agree (though you need not reach back to the Nazis
> for a demonstration). The evils of the world are *not* mainly
> due to personality (I am *so* glad you agree, given the current
> climate of demonization of greedy capitalists and what-not, who
> many see as a personal exhibition of evilness).

There is probably a higher incidence of high-functioning psychopaths
in senior management jobs, but I don't expect this would be different
for private enterprise, elected officials or bureaucrats.

> Instead the
> evils of the world for most part are do to bad or inadequate
> institutions, e.g. the unequal distribution of capitalism,
> the unequal distribution of lawful behavior, and the unequal
> distribution of liberty.

In other words, the environment rather than genetics.

>> There are plenty of examples of third world countries where the
>> government does everything it can to suppress any activity that might
>> be construed as impeding business, for example by eliminating trade
>> unionists or other liberal/lefty types, not to mention refraining from
>> spending any money on public services, and these countries are a total
>> mess.
>
> I imagine that the ones you have in mind are the kleptocracies
> run by a dictatorial elite for their own benefit. If you have
> other examples, I'd love to hear them, thanks.

I'm thinking of the numerous Latin American dictatorships supported by
the US Government because a democracy may have turned to the left and
jeopardised US political and commercial interests. That it took a
brutal dictatorship to prop up a free enterprise system which then
functioned suboptimally due to corruption is an argument that could
also be used to excuse the economic failure of communist states. The
lesson seems to be that the successful states are those where the
people are allowed to decide for themselves how socialist or
capitalist they want to be, and continually revise their decision
depending on the outcome.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou



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