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Life as a Service

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Life as a Service

#141

Post by winter_blue »

Zak wrote: post #35
msluyter wrote: post #26

"Even so, I’d be a lot happier paying taxes if there had been a moment where I was given the choice: pay taxes and have these benefits or be left to your own devices." Except that there's no (current, easy) way of excluding you from various public goods that are paid by taxes. Examples include national defense, public spaces like parks, public highways, fire protection (if you live in shared housing or simply close e…

In principle, I agree with you, but most of the things you list are relatively cheap. In the United States (I know Jacques isn't American), the majority of the Federal budget is devoted to the military, interest on the national debt, various forms of free/subsidized insurance for the old and poor, and various forms of income support for the poor. The public goods other than national defense you list are very cheap in…

> Federal fuel taxes exceeded Federal highway spending in 2010 according to http://usgovernmentspending.com.

Wow, looking at that chart, the greatest spending is on Healthcare! ($1.1 trillion!!!) Shouldn't $1.1 trillion be able to provide world-class universal healthcare (to everyone) ?

Re: Life as a Service

#142

Post by winter_blue »

Zak wrote: post #35
msluyter wrote: post #26

"Even so, I’d be a lot happier paying taxes if there had been a moment where I was given the choice: pay taxes and have these benefits or be left to your own devices." Except that there's no (current, easy) way of excluding you from various public goods that are paid by taxes. Examples include national defense, public spaces like parks, public highways, fire protection (if you live in shared housing or simply close e…

In principle, I agree with you, but most of the things you list are relatively cheap. In the United States (I know Jacques isn't American), the majority of the Federal budget is devoted to the military, interest on the national debt, various forms of free/subsidized insurance for the old and poor, and various forms of income support for the poor. The public goods other than national defense you list are very cheap in…

> Federal fuel taxes exceeded Federal highway spending in 2010 according to http://usgovernmentspending.com.

Wow, looking at that chart, the greatest spending is on Healthcare! ($1.1 trillion!!!) Shouldn't $1.1 trillion be able to provide world-class universal healthcare (to everyone) ?

Re: Life as a Service

#143

Post by prodigal_erik »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #90
mibbitier wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've never understood, is why a seemingly large number of Americans don't seem to see the similarity between public fire protection, and a public health service. Aren't these two things pretty essential for civilisation?

Epidemic prevention certainly is, in the same way fire protection is - both a fire and an epidemic can rage out of control and kill lots of people. They are public goods because they have large positive externalities. Both are also dirt cheap (i.e., single-digit percentages of government spending) and very few people oppose their public provision. So why bring them up?

It's hard to reconcile with the idealized version of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-watchman_state that does nothing more than enforce the non-aggression principle. I suppose one could consider arson (not accidents) as a form of aggression they must be prepared for, but I find this an obvious public good the night-watchman state doesn't account for very well.

Re: Life as a Service

#144

Post by innguest »

sdoering wrote: post #43
Paul_S wrote: post #38

Shop around for a country to live in. I wish countries were more accommodating about this. In my dream world like minded people live in the same country. Just think of how great it would be if you didn't have to compromise because everyone in the country were on the same side of (for example) the liberal/conservative divide.

Interesting idea. But I believe, that countries as a whole a too big to be really manageable. I imagine a society living in smaller regions (but big enough for natural resources, et al.) and these regions are part of a bigger structure. Like cells in a body. OK, Germany or the US do have a similar way of organizing, but I would love for these "cells" to be more autonomous, so that like-minded people could "just" swit…

I have come to the same conclusion. I don't understand why we keep voting with ballots and not feet.

Does anyone here remember those vertical cities (they were effectively cities) in SimCity 2000 (3000?)? I can't find a picture (EDIT: found it: http://imgur.com/MBAzs) but ever since I first played that game, that tiny pixelated picture has given me many ideas.

Think of a large building with everything you need inside - all big box stores, small businesses, and residences. But in order to live there you need to share a lot in common with the philosophy that building was made for. So there would be one for liberals who are for abortion and for legalizing pot and so on and so forth; there would also be a separate building for all of the tiny variations, and those buildings would literally undergo a kind of natural selection (people would choose where to live) and the least popular ones would keep fine tuning their philosophy to try and attract more people.

That way we would all live with like minded people, there would be a lot less of the problems there are in today's society (basically all the proselytizing and wanting others to do as you think is right for them).

I'll stop here because I'm saving this stuff for a book or a long article, but Jacques article and your comments here have just alerted me to the fact that there might be other people who think the same as I do. To be frank, I'd much rather have a beer with you all than waste my time typing this crap. We could all do that if we lived in one of those vertical charter cities. :)

Re: Life as a Service

#145

Post by a-priori »

adaml_623 wrote: post #27

I think the OP's point that we are surrounded by established monopolies is very noticeable nowadays. Copyright agency, Lawyers, Medical practitioners, etc.

s/monopolies/professionals/

You picked a strange list of examples. None of them are monopolies, they're usually individual professionals or small practices.

Re: Life as a Service

#146

Post by Buzaga »

I've thought about this some times, it's a hard thing to wrap logic around, definitely...

but here's two things that are a bit unsettling to me on this topic:

- life is paid, you can't just go to some abandoned place, raise chicken and plants and live off of it and if you can't pay for your life you either turn yourself into a slave(living to pay to be alive) or you're made into the worst thing possible, with all your dignity taken from you(be a bum and face everything that's left when you can't pay for a life, even the ones created by the system itself)

- why can't there be competition? it made me remember this article: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678720/former-seasteaders-come-a... what would happen if different state models were allowed to exist and they proved to be less corrupt, safer, fairer, happier and people just started migrating to this better states(from what I took they'd still live in capitalism)? I'm almost sure other governments wouldn't let it happen, and this takes me to another unsettling thought that is how, as much as people wan't freedom and dignity, governments want the power, they're barely ever accountable and they don't have competition, they own the game.

Well, just thoughts..

Re: Life as a Service

#147

Post by acuozzo »

eckyptang wrote: post #102
acuozzo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Considering morality is founded on a fear of someone doing to you what you did to them, then yes. Well, at least we know you're at stage #1 of Kohlberg's stages of moral development.

Ah that broken model which assumes that moral reasoning has a relation to moral action, which it clearly doesn't for the majority of the population of this rock...

Citing the broken assumption upon which the model is (partly) based isn't enough to claim the model has no value, as you're clearly implying.

An example: A model of the universe is useful, even if it was developed under the assumption that it was created by supernatural forces.

Please don't use such weak argument tactics in the future, as they're just childish.

Re: Life as a Service

#148

Post by T-hawk »

winter_blue wrote: post #141
Zak wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In principle, I agree with you, but most of the things you list are relatively cheap. In the United States (I know Jacques isn't American), the majority of the Federal budget is devoted to the military, interest on the national debt, various forms of free/subsidized insurance for the old and poor, and various forms of income support for the poor. The public goods other than national defense you list are very cheap in…

> Federal fuel taxes exceeded Federal highway spending in 2010 according to http://usgovernmentspending.com . Wow, looking at that chart, the greatest spending is on Healthcare! ($1.1 trillion!!!) Shouldn't $1.1 trillion be able to provide world-class universal healthcare (to everyone) ?

Nope. $1.1 trillion divided by the 300 million population of the US comes to only $3666 per person. That's enough for routine care and common prescriptions and such, but not going to cover any kind of serious surgery or therapy.

(It's kind of amazing that at the scale of the United States government, a trillion dollars is not in fact a whole lot of money.)

Re: Life as a Service

#149

Post by nagnatron »

jschuur wrote: post #14
nagnatron wrote: post #5

This hits very close and I guess you only realize it if at some point of your life you live where you'd rather not but have no way to get out. I need permission from my government if I want to leave the country. Being given a passport is apparently not a right. Oh and they cost quite a bit of money and are valid only 5 years. That works out to a certain amount of money per day just to be able to exist outside the bor…

I challenge the 'quite a bit of money' part. Fees for a Dutch passport amount to about US $100 at the UK embassy e.g. (I'm Dutch, but live in the UK): http://www.dutchembassyuk.org/page/index.php?i=158 Sure, $100 sounds low for many people, even though it's a fortune for some. However, spread across a 5 year period, it's a little more than 5 cents a day.

The passport fee is not the problem. Until relatively recently I've had to(and still do for some countries) also provide a lot of paperwork and pay a visa fee to go to a neighboring country.

And I know 100$ sounds like not much but consider that my parents were not of means in a country of a rather low standard of living.

This may not be what the author meant with this paragraph but it's what resonated with me.

Re: Life as a Service

#150

Post by cachvico »

tmh88j wrote: post #62
olalonde wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modern version would probably be "freemen on the land": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemen_on_the_land "Freemen on the land" are people who believe that all statute law is contractual, and that such law is applicable only if an individual consents to be governed by it. They believe that they can therefore declare themselves independent of government jurisdiction, holding that the only "true" law is common law,…

My friend's girlfriend is a public defender and has dealt with many of them. If anyone here has not heard of them or knows very little, I would suggest doing some investigating. I don't have respect for them (mainly because the overwhelming majority don't have a clue of the legal system and obligations they have as a citizen yet argue obscure laws), but it will provide some entertainment and a very strange but intere…

That video's hilarious - do you know if he would actually have got away with that - or would he just have received another summons or fine in the mail?
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