I'm having email problems again (grrr!), so on top of being distracted with
other matters, I'm also suffering only intermittent connectivity.
A quick note on your post, Miriam. The conditions you describe in the Phillipines
have little or nothing to do with capitalism and much to do with an utter
absence of the rule of law and webs of social trust. Even the most strident
anarcho-capitalists here do not advocate lawlessness or a social regime
devoid of non-economic bonds of trust.
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
-- Original Message --
>At 01:37 PM 18/07/2001 -0400, Mike Lorrey wrote:
>>Tiberius Gracchus wrote:
>> > flawed: with no govt, the rich/ the professional
>> > associations/corporations/lobbyists will just buy squads of goons to
>> > get their way.
>
>
>>No, we don't expect a government to enforce law and order. I suggest you
>>read David Friedman's "The Machinery of Freedom" first to get a more
>>accurate perception of libertarian arguments. Most of what you are
>>saying will go away.
>
>[groan... I was going to lessen my involvement in this thread]
>
>I don't expect that anything I say will affect you Mike, but here goes...
>
>I have a friend from the Phillipines. She told me about how things worked
>
>over there. It is slightly less of a problem now, but much of it still
stands.
>
>The extremely rich have their own private armies. Most of the poor have
>absolutely no chance of getting out of poverty to become more useful
>members of society; they are born into slavery and will spend their lives
>
>that way. There were no controls upon the rich and powerful... there still
>
>are few.
>
>Again with the disclaimer: I don't think capitalism is bad. I think
>excessive power too often leads to abuse of that power. One natural
>outgrowth of capitalism is concentration of power into fewer and fewer
>hands... just like most political systems. Use of capitalism as a
>substitute religion encourages uncritical acceptance of such a fate.
>
> - Miriam
>
>
>---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
>Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
>A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
>---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
>http://werple.net.au/~miriam
>http://members.optushome.com.au/miriame
>Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
>
>
Greg Burch gregburch@gregburch.net
GBurch1@aol.com - gburch@lockeliddell.com
Attorney::Vice President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"We never stop investigating. We are never
satisfied that we know enough to get by.
Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest
survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:50 MDT