From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 04 2002 - 14:06:42 MST
Dave Sill [mailto:extropians@dave.sill.org] wrote:
"Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
>
> I for one would argue fairly strongly that any system that taxes the
> general population and puts a reasonable fraction of that income into
> peer reviewed scientific research is going to advance an extropic agenda
> faster than a "pure" libertarian society where the only scientific
> research that gets funded is by those who understand science sufficiently
> to want to donate their resources to it.
I disagree. Extropianism isn't about forcing people to Do The Right
Thing. Just as freedom speech means that people are free to voice
dissenting opinions, true freedom means that people are free to not
support the government's agenda, however "good" it might be in
"everyone's" opinion.
### It might be acceptable to allow people not to pay taxes for research -
but only if they pledge not to use medical care, not to eat, drive a car,
read about astronomy, use a computer - in brief, not to benefit from all the
results of scientific research applied to real life situations, without
paying their dues.
I wonder how many true libertarians would be willing to accept this
certainly equitable but oh so difficult solution.
Rafal
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