From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 10:05:17 MDT
>From: Samantha Atkins <samantha@objectent.com>
>>Brian D Williams wrote:
>> They will find a cure and I will not be able to afford it since
>> unlike their parents I paid for their education, and these
>> things aren't free. TANSTAAFL.
>> In a capitalist economy we aren't all in this together, we are
>> all in competition. You are asking me to unfairly subsidize my
>> competition.
>That is a bit of a twisted view of capitalism actually. In a
>capitalist society you trade value for value. It is about that,
>not about being in competition with everyone else per se. Being
>in competition with the entire world means you can never be at
>peace or not on your guard. It means you can never help anyone
>without "helping your competiont". This doesn't seem like a
>bappy way to live. What of helping those who will be future
>contributors to the amount of wealth in the world to fully
>maximize that potential so the amount of real wealth is greater
>than it would be otherwise? I think your selfish filter is
>screening at much too short a range.
I was making a specific point in an intellectual discussion.
If you can get me to subsidize your lifestyle that is obviously
good for you, that is the current state here in the U.S. with
singles minus children subsidizing those married with children.
There is no value to me in subsidizing involuntarily someone else's
lifestyle.
Actually since I lead a modest lifestyle (except for my book buying
addiction) I am free to be generous with my extra funds as any
friend can attest. If I was not being forced to subsidize other
peoples lifestyles I could be even more generous.
>Actually, it depends on whether the advantage is zero-sum or
>not. Education, knowledge and information generally are not
>zero-sum. It may fairly be said that the more they are shared,
>the more people are given this "advantage", the more of this
>particular type of advantage their is to share. This is very
>different from the all-competitive, rat-race model.
The group may be advantaged but the individual is not. This is okay
for Socialists/Economic Democrats, but not for
capitalist/individualists.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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