From: EvMick@aol.com
Date: Wed Sep 17 1997 - 23:30:09 MDT
In a message dated 97-09-17 00:23:55 EDT, you write:
<< Hi!>>
Not yet...but I'm working on it...<beer...the wellspring of civilization>
<I have some questions about economical principles, some regarding
free-markets and libertarian ideals and since many of you seem to
support libertarianism, complete individual freedom, free-markets, etc,
I wondered if you could answer my doubts.>>
I'll try...i'm probably the least educated on the list...but I have very
strong opinions....and a variety of experiences from which to draw REASONS
for said opinions.
<Let's start:
Are most of you, extropians, libertarians?>
Don't know about most...but I am...card carrying.
< Why do you think free-markets are the best economical solution?>
same reason that Danny Hills built the "Thinking Machine"...it works....and
it's "Robust"..multiple attempts mean multiple chances for succes...many
failures perhaps...but eventually the parallel processing aspects will grind
out a solution...and later ANOTHER...and another...and......as tech improves
and society and the economy evolve..
<In today's world, it's almost impossible to do something without
affecting other persons, still why do you claim individual freedom and
an almost cult of individual property so important?>
So ....what's your point? that's a nonsequentar...chaos theory suggests that
a butterfly fart in antartica might eventuate a hurricane in some other
location...or to be less crude "you can't only do just ONE thing"....it has
always been thus and is not a social pehenomenon...it has nothing to do with
the desire for individual freedom (see above...it works)
<<Complete freedom in economies will bring to the scene big corporations
instead of small, local business.>>
Prove it. It has never happened yet.... There is such a thing as an
optimium size for a business...for example Hog Farming (or any
farming)...absent government meddling...technology allows economies of
scale...low tech means that the prices are high...and small numbers of hogs
bring high enough prices to allow small operators to stay in
existence...however ...as tech improves...the margin of profit
decreases....You can get rich if you have a million hogs...but you'll go
broke if you have only a hundred...since you have certain "fixed" costs...and
certain "variable' costs...of operation...and yet the sale price for the hog
is the same...no matter how many hogs you have...hence to make money you have
to sell a LOT of hogs...
or chickens...most especially chickens...
There are multiple and obvious examples of too much control strangling an
economyh...The FORMER soviet union...Cuba...Spain....New York
City...California...(ole trucker adadge...bedbuggers have a saying about
California...".U-hauls in...United Van Line out")
or to put it another way..."What you want more of ...you subsidize...What you
want less of ....you tax"
Think about welfare...corporate flight...the rising south...the declining
"Rust"belt...
<<Won't this corporations have too much
power and therefore harming everyone (the consumers and general public)
but themselves?>>
If any corp starts exploiting...they go broke...(absent government
meddling)...monopolies are only possible in a controlled economy...can't
happen in a free market...negative feedback..
<<Do you think the economy should be based on small
business or big corporations?>>
who's to say...I don't beleive in "should"...it depends on the economic
situation...as I said...economies of scale....only a government beuracrate
would have the god-awful egotism to think that he can outhink the
market...one tiny little mind..and a mediorcre one at that (Politics is the
art of the Possible...hence it is staffed by mediocre minds...Great minds
attempt the impossible...or something like that)...or a group...better than
millions and millions of individual transactions? A market is ruled by
similar forces that govern any ecology....vastly complex...
<< What do you think of environmental issues?>>
See "Trashing the Planet" by Dixie Lee Ray...
<Do you think technology will
always give us the solutions to all our problems?>
Nothing else will that's for certain....you can squat in a corner and rub
blue mud on your belly for ever...chanting matras and thinking pure
thoughts....and that won't solve ..any problems...(didn't build any diesel
engines, hiways, bridges...)
<< What do you think the intervention of government in economy should be?>>
None...zero...zip...nadda...
<<Guess that's all but I'm sure that whatever your answers will be, I'll
have other questions waiting.>>
You got questions...I got answers...even if it's "i don't know"..
<<Thanks in advance,>>
You're quiet welcome....glad I could clear that up for you..
--
.
EvMick
Amarillo, Texas
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