From: Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Date: Sat Sep 20 1997 - 07:16:04 MDT
: Joao Pedro writes:
: > .... You're talking of voluntary, unselfish actions
: > from the same species that constantly kills, destroys and robs
: > other members of the same species? ....
Constantly? Speak for yourself.
quoth Arkuat:
: Language problem here: "voluntary" has nothing to do with
: "unselfish". Voluntary means uncoerced.
I think JP means that the set of unselfish acts
and the set of voluntary acts do not intersect
(as much as they need to, to support civilization).
JP again:
: > I'll be honest, I don't know what negative feedback is
: > and I know nothing of basic economics [...]
Damien Sullivan:
: Oy veh! You expect us to write an introductory economics textbook for
: you? Perhaps we should teach you what the periodic table is as well?
Be fair, `negative feedback' is a term of art that probably
isn't in an English-Portuguese dictionary. I understood
the principle long before I knew what the phrase means.
JP again:
: > I read books, I find it, however, much less boring and
: > time consuming to ask other persons. Or do you read a book
: > every time you have a doubt or a question?
You want a voluntary, unselfish answer?
: > People theoretically
: > control government (by voting) and still government is corrupt, why is
: > that? What makes you think that indirect control of economy by persons
: > is going to improve anything?
There are many answers to this. Here's one:
You can lie with your vote ("I vote in favor of this subsidy
to show that I am generous ... with other people's money;
I vote for this job-destroying bill to show that I care about
the environment ... provided that other people will suffer
most of the costs; I vote for gun control because I want to
stop the violence ... provided that I can still have armed
guards") but you can't lie with your money.
Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com
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