<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(80, 0, 80); ">>Theatres? No. That is exclusively the domain of private<br>industry, and the root of the tension between libertarian and statist.<</span><div>
<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">The U.S. government did during the 30's fund the theaters, in something called the national theatre program. It turned out to be too socialist for them, so they canned it. Canada has the Canadian Council which provides grants to professional artists for project creation. They don't care what you write as long as it's good. They've saved my butt a bunch a times.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">d.<br>
</span></font><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Richard Loosemore <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rpwl@lightlink.com">rpwl@lightlink.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">spike wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
... On Behalf Of Richard Loosemore<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
... people coming together and realizing that it is in everyone's best<br>
</blockquote>
interest if the community is forced to pool their resources to pay for<br>
things like roads and theaters and bridges and schools and police forces...<br>
<br>
Indeed? The critical difference in my thinking and yours is found in this<br>
one sentence. People coming together for roads, bridges, schools and<br>
police, yes. Theatres? No. That is exclusively the domain of private<br>
industry, and the root of the tension between libertarian and statist. It<br>
is not in everyone's best interest to pool resources to build theatres.<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
The inclusion of "theaters" was strictly optional: not essential to my argument. A throwaway.<br>
<br>
So let me see if I understand: you are saying that without the word "theater" in my description, what I said bore no resemblance to the philosophy of libertarianism?<br>
<br>
Would it be more accurate, then, to say that Libertarianism is about SUPPORTING the government funding of:<br>
<br>
Roads,<br>
Bridges,<br>
Police,<br>
Firefighters,<br>
Prisons,<br>
Schools,<br>
Public transport in places where universal use of cars would<br>
bring cities to a standstill, or where poor people would<br>
otherwise be unable to escape from ghettos,<br>
The armed forces,<br>
Universities, and publicly funded scholarships for poor students,<br>
National research laboratories like the Centers<br>
for Disease Control and Prevention,<br>
Snow plows,<br>
Public libraries,<br>
Emergency and disaster assistance,<br>
Legal protection for those too poor to fight against the<br>
exploitative power of corporations,<br>
Government agencies to scrutinize corrupt practices by<br>
corporations and wealthy individuals,<br>
Basic healthcare for old people who worked all their lives<br>
for corporations who paid them so little in salary that<br>
they could not save for retirement without starving to<br>
death before they reached retirement,<br>
And sundry other programs that keep the very poor just above<br>
the subsistence level, so we do not have to step over their<br>
dead bodies on the street all the time, and so they do not<br>
wander around in feral packs, looking for middle-class people<br>
that they can kill and eat...<br>
<br>
<br>
.... but it is about NOT supporting the government funding of theaters?<br>
<br>
<br>
In that case I misunderstood, and all western democracies are more or less libertarian already, give or take the 0.0001 percent of their funding that goes toward things like theaters and opera houses.<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Richard Loosemore</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div><font face="'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><i>There is no history, only biography.</i></font></div><div><font face="'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><i><br>
</i></font></div><div><font face="'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><i>-Ralph Waldo Emerson<br></i></font><div><font face="Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif"><span style="line-height:26px"><span style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;line-height:normal;color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-style:italic"><span style="background-color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><br>
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