From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Jul 23 2001 - 00:40:06 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> Barbara also writes
>
> >>> But theoretically, yes, I'd like to live in a world where every
> >>> person was guaranteed basic food, shelter, and medical care.
>
> >>So would we all. It's frankly a question of how high a price
> >>we have to pay, whether it would work, and whose rights we have
> >>to trample on to get there.
>
> > I agree. BTW, I don't recall writing anywhere that I desire to trample
> > anyone's rights (I don't believe I even implied this). I either failed to
> > make my meaning clear, or you read something into what I wrote that wasn't
> > there.
>
> Here is where the confusion comes from and it seems that you
> imply it: whenever you endorse a guaranteed minimal income,
> libertarians point out that this means sanctioning the forceful (!)
> seizure of assets (i.e. taxation) of individuals, hence a trampling
> of individual rights.
>
Actually, if memory serves, no less a champion of individual
rights and capitalism than Milton Friedman proposed such a thing
back in the sixties. I don't remember the details of his
reasoning however. Perhaps I'll look it up when I have more
time.
- samantha
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