From: Guru George (gurugeorge@sugarland.idiscover.co.uk)
Date: Wed Feb 19 1997 - 17:49:10 MST
On Tue, 18 Feb 1997 12:57:19 -0800 (PST)
hanson@hss.caltech.edu (Robin Hanson) wrote:
>Guru George writes:
>>>Given that we had a slave trade, it would indeed make sense to argue
>>>about how to make it more efficient. And since we do in fact have
>>>legislatures, it makes sense to argue about how to make them better.
>>
>>So in your book it doesn't make any sense to argue about whether or not
>>we*should* have a slave trade or a government?
>
>Huh? I the very next paragraph I wrote:
>
>> There are governments now. If you
>> want to convince people to work to get rid of them, you have to
>> convince people they would like their circumstances substantially
>> better without a government. Baldface claims that govts are
>> "evil" are not going to get you very far toward this goal.
>
By your reasoning, to get rid of slavery one would have had to convince
people that they would have liked their circumstances substantially
better without owning slaves. Well, maybe you could have convinced them
of this, maybe not. But isn't this missing something? Surely the claim
that slavery is evil stands on its own, and likewise re. govt.?
It just makes no sense at all to argue about how to make something evil
more efficient, whether we've got it at present or not.
Guru George
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