[ExI] Political Relativism (was very informative)

[Anton Sherwood]

> On 2020-12-30 08:12, Dave Sill via extropy-chat wrote:
>   > ... I found politicalcompass.org to be harder to answer. There were
>   > too many questions that I could have answered "strongly disagree" or
>   > "strongly agree". E.g., the first question:
>   >
>   >	If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily
>   >	serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national
>   >	corporations.
>   >
>   > I think serving humanity can, and should, be consistent with the
>   > interests of trans-national corporations.

On 2020-12-30 10:10, Anton Sherwood via extropy-chat wrote:
> The question seems to assume that globalisation is inevitably managed by
> regulators, who are either Progressive or corrupt.  Lots of blind spots
> like that.

Libertarians (especially leftish ones like Roderick Long) often point 
out that regulation creates economies of scale, even when it does not 
actively discourage competition, so corporations would likely be much 
smaller without it.  So a libertarian can agree without much qualm.

I see that I blogged in 2003 (https://bendwavy.org/wp/?p=1162),
"I suspect I’d be further left if some of the questions were worded 
differently."  Examples:

	It is regrettable that many personal fortunes are made by
	people who simply manipulate money and contribute nothing
	to their society.

Speculators in commodities serve society by making prices more 
predictable; they consume fluctuations, not cause them.  On the other 
hand, political distortion of the financial system creates artificial 
opportunities for profit; which part of this picture deserves the focus 
of regret?

	A genuine free market requires restrictions on the
	ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies.

A genuine free market *is* a restriction on that ability.  So, agree or 
disagree?

	The businessperson and the manufacturer are more
	important than the writer and the artist.

Unless we're discussing subsidies, who cares?

	Multinational companies are unethically exploiting
	the plant genetic resources of developing countries.

Are we talking about use, or patents?

My score on this quiz in 2006 was Economic Right 4.63, Social Lib 5.85; 
today it's Right 3.13, Lib 6.97.

See also https://bendwavy.org/wp/?p=1447

-- 
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org