From: Max More (max@maxmore.com)
Date: Fri May 10 2002 - 05:00:40 MDT
At 07:40 AM 5/10/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>And BTW, aren't all of you extropians supposed to be anti-govt
>libertarians? This is a state funded program you are trying to get
>into for free, right? Any comments from the peanut gallery?
Arg! For the quadrillionth time, NO!
However, Mike is (I believe). It's an important ethical and psychological
question to ask about anti-tax libertarians. It has been addressed many
times, but should be carefully considered by each individual. Most such
persons would probably argue, reasonably, that they are merely taking back
some of the large amounts of money paid in taxes. (This assumes that they
*have* paid taxes...) For one-time income, that's a good answer (unless
your political principles are absolute and override personal interests),
but more tricky issues of dependency and psychological capture arise with
long-term acceptance of government support.
I faced this issue years ago, back when I was a strict libertarian who
believed all taxation was theft (extortion really). I no longer hold such a
stark view, but at the time I had to confront the fact that I was attending
a university funded by the state. Since ALL universities in the country
were state funded (this was England in the 1980s) my choice was
state-funded or nothing. Since my ethical view was ethical egoist, I didn't
believe I had to forego my education. What I did was to relentlessly and
publicly speak out against state education and in favor of privatizing
education. This was no idle matter since at the time (think Margaret
Thatcher) there was real chance that a move in that direction would happen.
This is a good issue for discussion, and I think it applies also to
depending on income from other sources such as charities, parents, and so on.
Onward!
Max
_______________________________________________________
Max More, Ph.D.
max@maxmore.com or more@extropy.org
http://www.maxmore.com
Strategic Philosopher
President, Extropy Institute. http://www.extropy.org <more@extropy.org>
_______________________________________________________
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