From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jun 20 2001 - 04:26:45 MDT
Dwayne quoted...
But yes, you're right, there
> > is a greater tendency for Europeans to be anti-free market.
>
then added...
>Same with Australians. <snip> I'd say australians would be more in line
>with
>europeans than americans. I think. Feel free to comment Damien and Emlys
>and any other
>aussies here :-)
>
>Mind you our conservative government is *desperately* trying to turn this
>around, but I
>strongly feel that capitalism is contrary to the australian ideal of "the
>fair go" and
>so some pretty heavy social re-engineering is required.
As the newest Aussie here, AFAIK, I have to agree that there's a stronger
tendency for us to accept collectivist solutions than is the case with the
US. Nor am I convinced that this is entirely a bad thing.
The point isn't to insist on economic freedom for business corporations, or
to avoid collectivist answers to every problem of social coordination, at
all costs. Like most on this list, I have libertarian tendencies, but the
really important point is to challenge the legitimacy of governmental
actions that suppress individual choices *for the sake of suppressing those
choices*, ie which attempt to use law to impose a particular conception of
the "good life" on everyone. If this kind of reasoning could be declared
illegitimate once and for all, that would expand the protection of our
freedoms enormously; it would give us all the freedom we need to pursue a
transhumanist agenda. Governments might still make a lot of bad decisions,
but a huge class of such decisions would be ruled out in advance as morally
illegitimate.
FWIW, a lot of collectivist actions at which I might look at askance if I
saw them in isolation strike me as more reasonable in the context of a
mercantilist economic system dominated by state-sanctioned trading and
financial entities with special legal privileges. This way of conducting
trade, commerce and finance doubtless has pragmatic economic advantages, but
it could not be justified within a pure libertarian system such as Nozick's
in _Anarchy, State and Utopia_. If we're going to continue with a
mercantilist economic system, I have no in-principle concerns about
softening it with labour relations and trade practices laws aimed at giving
a "fair go". As long as we rule out laws for the suppression of beliefs,
thoughts, expression, inquiry, life style choices, etc, enacted for the sake
of such suppression, a policy mix with some collectivist elements may be
acceptable, or even desirable, seen against a backdrop where no one has any
serious prospect of introducing a pure libertarian system with no corporate
privileges.
I suppose someone will now decide I'm a "pinko commie", or something, but so
be it. :)
Russell
==================
Russell Blackford
rblackford@hotmail.com
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