From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Aug 28 2001 - 13:18:48 MDT
>From: "Zero Powers" <zero_powers@hotmail.com>
>I don't think anyone here is advocating socialism. I certainly am
>not. But there are alternatives other than unregulated markets on
>one hand and totalitarian socialist regimes on the other. Though
>die hard libertarians will disagree, free enterprise mixed with a
>spoonful of socially responsible regulation can go a long way.
Indeed, history books are filled with the excesses of capitalism,
which is where a good minimalist democratic government comes in.
>Unrestrained capitalism (think early industrial US) leads to huge
>discrepancies in the distribution of wealth, which leads to social
>unrest (think the early labor movement) and even upheaval (think
>French Revolution).
Huge discrepencies may have helped play a part, but it was the long
mandatory hours and other deplorable conditions that gave rise to
the labor movement.
Today we still have the great discrepencies in income, but many
clever people have managed to avoid the problems this formally
caused.
>From another post:
>That analogy doesn't work. Its not like Ford was giving away free
>cars, and then someone proposed that he stop giving them away for
>free. When the market for cars was young, they were a luxury.
>Education is a necessity.
Yes, a vital necessity, but that doesn't mean that the people who
descide to have children are exempt from paying the real world
costs.
This could not happen immediately of course, but you could have a
transistion (at least 9 months long).
>Besides, when you say those goods are available to the "average
>person" aren't you really talking about the middle classes and
>above? Where I'm from *poor* people still mostly use public
>transportation.
I'm supposedly middle class, but I take public transportation every
day, it's an urban thing.... ;)
Brian
Member:
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Disclosure notice: currently "plonked"
"Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com>
"Party of Citizens"<citizens@vcn.bc.ca>
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