From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 15 1998 - 14:52:08 MST
Samael wrote:
>Me, personally? I advocate property "rights" with minimal taxation
>necessary for a basic state .
OK. Well then, since "property is theft," you're advocating theft. Do I
understand you correctly?
>I believe the tax burden
>will get less and less as we get richer and richer (and peoples capacity for
>charity goes up - as well as peoples ability to look after themselves) until
>we approach (or possibly asymptotically approach) the libertarian ideal
>state where each person can look after themselves and there is no 'need' to
>help other people with the basic means of survival. I'd liek to believe in
>pure capitalism, believe me , I would, but I see too many flaws in it
>(although it is igetting better as we go along and certain things could do
>with being more purely capitalistic at the momnent).
I understand your dilemma, but consider this: the more and faster the
economy grows, the fewer people die, ceteris paribus. Now there is no
doubting that some people will die whether society pursues libertarian
capitalism or whether society pursues tax-spend capitalism. The question
is whether MORE people would die under libertarianism than under a welfare
state.
Libertarianism has an added advantage compared to welfare, namely, that it
will get us to immortalizing technology much faster than will a welfare
state (again, thanks to the rapid economic growth). I put it to you that
since a libertarian economy grows so much faster than an economy on welfare
does, fewer people will die if society pursues capitalism than will die if
society pursues welfare.
The argument that welfare saves lives through mandatory charity for the
poor is dubious. Private charity can and does surpass gov't charity, both
in quantity and in quality. In addition, there is plenty of data showing
that charity increases as the economy grows; thus welfare ultimately leads
to less charity, rather than more, in the long run.
Thus, since libertarianism saves more lives than welfare, we should endorse
libertarianism and reject welfare.
-Dan
-GIVE ME IMMORTALITY OR GIVE ME DEATH-
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