[ExI] philosophy poll

[Brent Allsop]

We were at the Louvre in Paris, last week.
I got this picture of my favorite Descartes.


On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 9:18 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Will,
>
>
>
> I believe in market failures too.  Market failures are what causes market
> successes.  The beauty of Capitalism is that it presents consumers with
> both the winners and the losers.  We get to choose which is which.
>
>
>
> In communism, the unelected government dictates who are the winners and
> the losers.
>
>
>
> This is why capitalism produces corvettes and Cadillacs, while communism
> produced Trabis and… well, a bunch more Trabis.
>
>
>
> Fun aside for car guys: most of the Soviet-era cars were actually German
> designs.  They didn’t change much over the years, and why should they?  The
> factory sold all they could produce, so why improve the design?  Besides,
> they already had the machines to make this design.  They seized them from
> the Nazis in 1945.
>
>
>
> Another fun aside for car guys: there is a Russian car club which holds
> occasional rallies.  If you want a lesson in the magic tricks perpetrated
> by the Invisible Hand of Capitalism, go to that rally, look at those
> commie-build cars, oh dear evolution, what (if anything) were these guys
> thinking?  When the Japanese started importing cars the US in the early 60s
> they had a reputation for being cheapy junk.  Do let me assure you, the
> Russians defined the term and taught the Japanese.  You have never seen
> cheapy junk until you have seen a Russian built car from the 80s, oh mercy.
>
>
>
> spike
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>
>
>
>
> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *Will Steinberg
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 22, 2019 7:21 AM
> *To:* ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] philosophy poll
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 9:33 AM Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> William James
>
>
>
> Quite a pragmatic post ;)
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> On Thu, Aug 22, 2019, 10:04 <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
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>
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> Excellent choice.  Adam Smith had economics figured out way back in the
> 1770s.  Had Karl Marx been a reader of English and had Adam Smith’s 1776
> book Wealth of Nations, the horror of communism would never had needed to
> infect the planet.
>
>
>
> spike
>
>
>
> I'm not sure where to start with this one, but maybe first off I would say
> that Karl Marx did read WoN, and other Smith, as if it wasn't painfully
> obvious.
>
>
>
> Capital is part of the lineage of WoN, cf. labor theory of value.  Also.
> Smith was pretty much pre-capitalist and probably would have chosen his
> words more carefully if he could have seen the influence that WoN would
> have.
>
>
>
> I like to say that Capital is the book that Adam Smith would have written
> if he had the luxury of being able to read Wealth of Nations like Marx was
> able to.
>
>
>
> Have you read both?  Or just hate them damn pinkos, Sen. McCarthy?
>
>
>
> NB: A lot of modern day economists might take umbrage at the idea that
> Smith "had economics figured out", especially because he was not able to
> see modern capitalism at its finest.
>
>
>
> BTW, I am not a communist, I just believe in market failures.  As does any
> economist worth their salt.
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