Sure, I’ll comment.
Both extremes, capitalism and socialism are bound to fail in my opinion.
Your defense [of socialism] is not sound because from the very start it’s full of holes
[quote]smh23 wrote:
This is the real practical problem right here. You made the money, true, and yet you wouldn’t have made a cent of it without the government toward whom you feel such animosity.
Who printed the money? Who backed it?
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Money itself doesn’t have to be state property, at all.
“Making cents” is a misconsception as the work or service you provide is just measured by money.
It’s not inherently “worth” a fixed amount.
The state’s service of “backing” money sure is a nice thing but can and will always backfire at one point in time, as history never fails to point out.
At that time, your hard work isn’t worth cents and bread can cost a million bucks - while the state is backing the monetary system. How can that be?
[quote]smh23 wrote:
How did you make the money…were roads involved at any step of the process, i.e. did the transportation of any good or human being contribute to the act of you making a single dollar of the money in question? If yes: who keeps those roads safe from medieval-style highway robbers (who, incidentally, exist in droves in Somalia, where no de jure state exists)? Who keeps them in relative good condition? How about railways? Were airplanes involved at any step of the process? Who regulated the airlines?
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Yes, infrastructure is nice, that’s why it’s such a hot topic among libertarians (should the state renew streets?). To a degree, it’s easily one of the best aspects of a socialistic approach.
However, it has to be kept in check since it’s extremely prone to corruption and criminal behaviour.
In Germany, it’s easily the most mafia-entrenched industry. Every Meter of Autobahn costs literally millions. Bridges to nowhere, ridiculous projects that eat billions (now in debate: the Stuttgart Bahnhof) and bind resources for DECADES. In Italy, you cannot bother to build infrastructure without paying the mob. Roadwork there gets routinely sabotaged by pro criminals.
In Japan, in order to keep poor villages voting in favour of big state, small, local roadsections are renovated indefinitly for DECADES.
This all costs insance money. Even worse, time & resources are not used in our favour. Innovations are severly hampered.
Perhaps there is some kind of compromise an advances society can achieve. So far I’m not convinced of the wonders of ultra luxurious infrastructure.
With wireless money transactions, we surely could make better solutions in the future, without a bloated big brother.
[quote]smh23 wrote:
Where did you, on a corporeal level, get the energy which you used to make the money? My guess would be from food. Why did you not spend more time worrying about the safety of the food you were eating (a preoccupation which would have been likely to eat up, on the eve of each and every meal, a modicum of your time and mental acuity at the very least)? Was it because of some regulatory body in whose absence standards of cleanliness in agriculture and food production would have been incalculably lower, as evidenced by both deductive logic and historical example? Did you drink water to sustain your own life during the making of the money in question? Was there a regulatory body involved in the assurance of the cleanliness and reliable availability of the water?
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If you think your food is available & safe because of state regulations, you are in severe denial.
You speak as if we can be happy to have something to eat.
In a proto society, I can manage (hunt) my own food.
Society has taken that right from me. I am not allowed to just hunt as I want to.
THAT is, in a nutshell, the essence of the tragedy. [From a mythological perspective, it’s the banishment from Eden, a place with unlimited resources]
That is why a society I envision HAS to adress the issue of birth control at one point.
Regarding hygiene:
Yes, they have regulation and even dirty eateries grumblingly do the minimum it takes.
If you look at it, you’ll realize from a systemic pov that real idea of “hygene” and health has to go a lot further.
Have you realized most people are fat or malnourished, often sick and that most food is far from ideal quality?
If it’s such a super system, why is basic food quality getting worse and worse and monopolized at a steady rate? Newspapers write regularly how Monsanto will cure the “hunger” with genetically improved junk. Do you think big scandals like BSE meat has any big companies losing sleep or money?
No, I’m not thankful I’m not getting quality food and that small enterprises who focus on quality are getting systematically obliterated while the population is reeducated to enoy sugary grub.
[quote]smh23 wrote:
Did you interact with other people while earning the money in question? If so, how did you communicate with them? My guess would be that it was in some sort of language. Who taught you this language? Was it in a school? Was there an authoritative body responsible for the fact that, regardless or your parents’ wishes or prejudices, you had been obliged to attend said school and learn to speak, read, and write said language? Who funded the school? Who ensured that it operate in a relatively respectable manner?
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Yes, education is nice. But language a state achievment or property? C’mon! Shakespeare and Luther were state officials?
I have yet to see a genius emerge straight out of school-education.
The big value in school is the socialization of the masses and, as a consequence, the ability to forge a nation.
I’m all for free basic education. Western schools, however, are for the most part, a catastrophe.
It’s a bit meaningless, in my opinion, to debate this because during our lifetimes we both will see radical changes that will emerge thanks to computers and the net. No point in stating the obvious. My grandchildren might not even go to school.
I won’t shed a tear for overpaid teachers and their shitty unions.
[quote]smh23 wrote:
Were you murdered or stolen from during the course of the making of this money in question? Why not? Was there some protective authority in place designed to halt or minimize criminality? Who paid for this?
I am assuming that you made this money at a certain geogaphic location on Earth. Was this location, during the course of your making the money, at any time overrun by conquering soldiers? Were you enslaved by a foreign power, or killed by invading warriors? Why not? Was there sort of large protective “army” in place to ensure against that?
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Hmm, so more state cures crime and war?
Let’s go for 100% socialism then, if eternal peace is the reward.
For the future of our children!
[quote]smh23 wrote:
The institutions and agencies responsible for the above benefits, we call the state. You used it, you pay for it.[/quote]
You used T-Nation server space as well as my time. Pay for it! NOW!