[ExI] we need socialism

[natasha at natasha.cc]

William, please be careful about making sweeping statements.  Certainly you have your own experiences and views, but generalizations and assumptions about others can backfire. 

 

 <http://www.natasha.cc/> Natasha Vita-More, PhD

 

Professor, University of Advancing Technology

Chair, Humanity+

Fellow, Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies

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From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2014 8:25 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: [ExI] we need socialism

 

Libertarians don't like authority, or at least question it severely if it is some sort of science thing.  But look at the needs of society:

Somebody has to :

take out trash

fix roads

put out fires

catch bad guys

etc.

So what we do is pool out money through taxes and pay others to do this.  OK, so this is kindergarten level, but wait.

We have a right to hate communism based on its record in Russia, N Korea, Cuba and others.  But wait:  all of these are authoritarian-based.  Aside from some hippie communes, where has libertarian socialism been practiced? 

Many of us hated Carl Rogers and his feel-good, unconditional positive regard theory of child raising.  But - has it ever been really tried?  Probably not, almost certainly not.  As soon as a kid left his house he would be treated much differently.

So we need socialism, like police departments - its' just a question of how much we will have.  This group knows this, and knows that people on the right and people on the left will never ever agree on how much to take from individuals to benefit society.

Or maybe 14 trillion dollars of debt is a good stopping point.  bill w

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