From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Wed Oct 04 2000 - 11:25:58 MDT
"J. Hughes" wrote:
>
> As fascinating as the debate has been between Speer as the sole authority
> on Nazi economic policy, versus the enormous body of academic research on
> the precise degree of capitalist/financier/industrialist complicity in the
> rise and rule of the Nazis, it really misses my point.
>
> Capitalism as a system has always required coercion, i.e. governments,
> simply to exist, if only to enforce contracts.
This first point of yours is plainly false. See the Law Merchant.
> And as attractive as the
> libertarian fantasy of reducing governance to simply the enforcement of
> contracts might seem, real-existing capitalism, dominated by various kinds
> of capitalists in alliance with various kinds of military thugs, fascist
> thugs, liberal democratic polities, and all the other forces of modern
> politics - real capitalists have always used the coercive aparatus of the
> State in far more extensive ways than libertarians would like. Which is why
> very few capitalists have ever been consistent libertarians.
As opposed to what? Capitalism exists separate and apart from government, while
your socialism absolutely requires government monopoly on force to compel
compliance by members of society with the socialist policies: to confiscate
property, to enforce equitable distribution, and to compel the division of
labor. Whereas totally voluntary communal organizations have always existed,
unimpeded (indeed, they are frequently assisted by capitalists), within free and
open capitalist oriented societies, no socialist society has ever allowed
voluntary capitalist organizations to exist unimpeded within them (while
socialist will almost never seek to improve a capitalists business). This
primary delineation between what I advocate and what you advocate puts the lie
to your claims.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:31:24 MST