Re: The Poor Masses

From: Dr. Rich Artym (rartym@galacta.demon.co.uk)
Date: Sat Oct 26 1996 - 06:41:16 MDT


In message <Pine.ULT.3.91.961016091424.15453B-100000@cantor.math.uwaterloo>,
Suresh Naidu writes:

> On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, John K Clark wrote:
> >
> > And my "individual way" is Capitalism.
>
> So your way involves fencing off territory that belongs to everybody.
> So you are a thief, and are thus infringing on our rights
> in the commune. Of course, if you don't hurt anybody,
> then squatters rights are respected. You can live on territory and be
> self-sufficient, but you can't overfish, poach, start forest fires, and
> enslave people. If the commune finds out your doing this, they'll get
> angry. Hell hath no fury like an anarcho-syndicalist commune scorned.

A good reply from Suresh to John, I thought, even though I am aligned
with John's general aversion to collectivism. Our Capitalism has many
good things, but it is also a rod for our backs because it also has many
bad things. The trick is to throw away the bathwater but not the baby.
Suresh very nicely highlights where the bathwater ends and the baby starts.

To put it another way, anarcho-capitalism is not Capitalism, because AC
is constrained by the individual freedom of all. Having gobs of cash
doesn't override that constraint, except perhaps for a short while until
the fury of the scorned AC bunch lets rip. Capitalism would be severely
constrained in such a world that no longer places capital on a pedestal.
The effect on Capitalism's dogmatists will I expect be quite funny.

Rich.

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