Re: Were to put our money (was PHIL: The (im)moral state)

From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Sat Mar 28 1998 - 10:47:23 MST


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

At 01:33 PM 3/28/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Two possibilities (AFAIKT):
>
>1. Most people do not make al of their decisions rationally and don't
>always take their long-term interests into consideration. This would
>explain why there are still many people smoking cigarettes, climbing
>mountians and riding bikes without a helmet.
>
>2. Libertarianism is not in the best interest of most people and they vote
>accordingly (for a minority group it is, or seems to be, in their best
>interests and they also vote accordingly).

You forgot the third possibility:

3. People don't believe that it is in their long term interests. Either
they have never heard arguments for libertarianism or they simply believe
these arguments to be incorrect.

The third is a highly relevant factor in this situation; after all, we're
having this discussion, aren't we? Of course, Possibility 3 alone is
sufficient to kill elections, which may explain why the libertarian party
isn't as large as it might be.

>Personally I think it's a combination of both. If a true libertarian party
>wins a national election in the US or a major European country and that
>country is still well (preferrebly better) after few years I'll change my
>opinion and congratulate everybody on this list who had more foresight than
>I did.

This is a good policy; the economy is rather complex and there may be some
factors which I have not yet thought of. My bet is on that state which
chooses libertarianism growing rich within about twenty or thirty years.

Best of luck!

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.3

iQEVAwUBNR03qfJQm6Y3yAfNAQHvggf/Xgnwb7Gdrq5f9Q+PAfRDyV4xlzKW09t8
AGKA7VhaHoe4c3fhcxD52sgmC4fGud+5PG04V3PpO2r6KuwaqiN8RH7vNmcRWEkY
G/i00jRwfPPahsApXNRJ2RifxGT3Y4zzYBj37uMoa3Xj+GZbqAR3rUFfCVtLs2wF
2IfSHIfDjpoUbqLn5ZfTmQBE0j718wES8Fs5Y/sBy+O5Aulaax/5TQVaUKC4STmm
KN8bZqPwaDaS5kdif7kq7iyBl533fj+YARHp6i142v2rnheRvCYmk9/h2NTBQfhE
JCXdVf3O+X19IL4e61is1zXMDwb4SOXCQvAbGcMt/p0SoiiGA/KBIw==
=c5Uo
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

                  -TAKE MY ADVICE-
              -I NEVER USE IT ANYWAY-



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:48:48 MST