From: Paul Hughes (paul@planetp.cc)
Date: Fri Sep 01 2000 - 14:13:41 MDT
"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
> because as far as I see it, the primary
> problem with such system (socialism) is that the threat of force causes underlings
> to lie when feeding information up the line, and the pressure of propaganda needs
> mandate that the leadership lie about both the acheivements of the last five
> years, and the goals of the next five years...
I agree with you on this.
> There is also the problem of perceptions of value. The market works because it
> allows parties to negotiate a common sense of value. Any system that allows
> parties to freely negotiate common perceptions of value is, by definition, a
> free market system.
Also true as long as *individuals* remain the focus of such transactions. But what
I see happening are large numbers of individuals being controlled by small numbers
through the traditional hierarchy of corporations. If this is not the case, then
why is it that less than 5% of any company dictates and controls policy while the
other 95% have to *obey* or get fired.
i.e. Corporation = Dictatorship. I challenge anyone to say otherwise. Sure I know
there are a *few* exceptions.
> Is this in fact the optimum system? As far as the individuals are concerned,
> based on their self interest, yes (except for those individuals who think that
> negotiation = getting screwed). As far as the long term best interest of those
> individuals, this is debatable.
Again I disagree with this. I want to use Napster and so does another 25 million
people. Sorry, but those running the corporations and in this case we are talking
about less than 1000 people have decided that we can not. The way I see it, if law
is imposed on a majority by a minority as in the case of Napster, then you have
nothing less than a Corporate Dictatorship using the government as its strong-arm.
Where is the individual transaction in this case? From where I'm sitting, they
could give a damn about the individual, only profits matter now.
Paul Hughes
http://planetp.cc/
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