[ExI] libertarians and inheritance

samantha sjatkins at mac.com
Fri May 8 17:38:14 UTC 2009


Damien Broderick wrote:
> At 04:59 PM 5/8/2009 +0000, BillK wrote:
> 
>> When nanotopia arrives, *everything* will change. Even humanity itself.
>> If a human becomes a vortex of energy spiraling around a miniature
>> black hole, it hardly seems relevant to talk about 'welfare queens'.
> 
> That's one, apocalyptic picture; I suspect in the short term, with 
> partly self-repping matter compilers of various kinds, we'd see futures 
> more like Bruce Sterling's "Kiosk" or HOLY FIRE--incremental 
> modifications of the current human condition. Sure, if there's a "hard 
> takeoff" the future goes absurdly weird fairly fast, but, as Keith and 
> Rafal keep saying, that looks more like doom for everyone except the 
> Exes (to adopt Moravec's term).
> 
>  >Is it true that Damien drives round in a 250,000 USD Winnebago
>  >with a sticker on the back that says
>  >'Spending our kids inheritance' ?

I like the last will statement, "Being of sound mind I spent all my 
money while I was alive."


> 
> My own behavior is irrelevant; all I did was poke the end of a burnt 
> stick into what I saw as a seeping hole in the libertarian claim that 
> free loot is dreadfully bad for the character--well, unless you have a 
> well-to-do daddy (especially if you're a libertarian trustafarian).

This in not a particularly libertarian claim.

- samantha




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