[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
orion wrote:
Gambit_Lost wrote:
orion wrote:
Gambit_Lost wrote:
orion wrote:
Free markets- Democracy= all things good.
As to your assumptions that me or anyone else would buy crap products were it not for the government, well I am glad that you can put your need for a master in coherent sentences.
Utopian.
Yes, because that would require a platform where people could rate their experiences with companies.
Something easily accessible, you could even compare prices and stuff.
Na, something like that is completely Utopian.
Maybe, someday, when all these Utopian technologies happen to merge we could even have a company, we could call it “Mississipi” or “Nile” or something ridiculous like that where people who have bought a product state if they like it and why.
Alas, until these golden times we need governments to take care of us.
How many degrees do you have?
How many do I need not to visit a restaurant twice that gave me or someone I know food poisoning?
I was half asleep when I wrote that, but you seem to have gotten it this go around. I’m half asleep again, so we’ll see what comes out.
Whenever someone claims “X = panacea!” s/he is, to me, a Utopian. As much as this probably irks you, there is no one philosophy that is “always right” and your attempts to prove otherwise are a more sophisticated version of dhickey’s. You think the internet is the solution? Should Kenya then had subsidized the line that just went in? You think people will always make the right decision? What about natural monopolies (water)? What about information asymmetries?
I’m sure you’ve some pre-made answers, probably even a single (or two!) examples of where things worked out in history. But bottom line, the free market is amazing and should be the primary system, but the government is needed when the markets fail. And they do.
If you’re just arguing for a movement towards these goals but realize there are exceptions, then I misunderstood you and we essentially agree (save maybe to degree). But if you think a completely free market is the panacea that will heal the world (like magic!), then you’re as off the wall as HH, Zeb, Trib, or Tbolt.
As far as the anti-democracy stuff…I’ve no idea what you’re getting at. What do you want? Anarchy? If so then you’re pretty Utopian there too.
IMO, anyway.
Just because something can’t be proven unequivocally, doesn’t mean it’s not true. A dollar does have more value to a slum dweller in Kibera than to a multi-millionaire, I don’t care if I can’t 100% prove it.
/My sleepy half-drunk rambling. [/quote]
Your last point is in fact arguably unprovable.
Anyway, it is not about a system that is perfect. It is about minimizing the threat of violence and maximizing peaceful cooperation.
The problem with democracy is that people vote on a lot of things that are really not their business and thereby try to solve problems that could have been solved or at least endured peacefully with violence.