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Life as a Service

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Life as a Service

#151

Post by Variance »

confluence wrote: post #84

I've made up my own law of selfish libertarianism - if you'll indulge me: > It's only a liability or an entitlement until you yourself need it - then it's a fucking right. For example being a young white male born into a middle class western family affords you the ability to state "all I need is contract law - everything else is just impinging on my rights and forcing me to take on obligations I don't appear to benef…

May I also add, in addition to the excellent rebuttals that other commenters have made to you, that you're making a false analogy between welfare and contract law by confusing positive and negative rights. Positive rights entitle people to something, while negative rights protect people from something. The ideals that most libertarian philosophies are based on maximize negative rights and minimize positive rights. This is based on the core insight that one person's positive rights can only ever come at the expense of another's negative rights. Also, strawman allusions to Somalia don't help this discourse.

Re: Life as a Service

#152

Post by wissler »

jacquesm wrote: post #116
confluence wrote: post #84

I've made up my own law of selfish libertarianism - if you'll indulge me: > It's only a liability or an entitlement until you yourself need it - then it's a fucking right. For example being a young white male born into a middle class western family affords you the ability to state "all I need is contract law - everything else is just impinging on my rights and forcing me to take on obligations I don't appear to benef…

I do not subscribe to the libertarian point of view. I considered 'armoring' the post against this exact accusation but it was long enough as it was without that but I guess I should have seen it coming. You make a mistake in that you think that I disagree with the actual laws, I do with some of them (specifically: the obligation to buy certain products or services without the right to negotiate) but on the whole I a…

I know it's hard not to respond, but all the OP offered was sneering sarcasm; he in fact has given nothing to respond to, and for that he should be on the defensive, not you. Given all the upvotes he got for a fact-devoid sarcastic sneer post, that tells you something unfortunate about HN.

Re: Life as a Service

#153

Post by Torgo »

po wrote: post #58
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?

In some places, fire protection is apparently up for debate. This family had their house burn down because they failed to pay the $75 tax. It's only fair after all: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tennessee-family-home-b... I think it's even been given the unfortunate name 'pay to spray'. Fire prevention is just as much up for debate amongst people of a certain ideological bent as healthcare. It's the next logic…

It wasn't about ideology, it was a CITY fire department that for a fee (not tax) would provide fire protection service inside the county but outside the areas it has legal jurisdiction to tax. Some places in the USA do not have county-wide fire service because they are that poor, or are particularly remote.

Re: Life as a Service

#154

Post by innguest »

innguest wrote: post #144
sdoering wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 insid…

Just for the sake of completeness, after much googling I came to learn that what I was trying to describe already has a name, and it's Arcology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology

So I mean that we should use arcologies (am I using this word correctly?) to experiment with finding the best political systems for each person, by allowing each person to choose where to live, and fine tuning the laws of the least popular arcologies to try and attract more people.

Re: Life as a Service

#155

Post by edanm »

snitko wrote: post #98
edanm wrote: post #73

A few of these points are interesting, because things don't have to be that way (e.g. various government-granted monopolies). But most of these points are uninteresting, in the sense that I cannot easily imagine alternatives. Public goods are a simple example - there's an economic reason it is not possible to let people opt-out of public goods: you can't not protect some people, so it is in their interest to opt-out…

May I refer you to David D. Friedman and Murray Rothbard for explanations of how public property would be so much better off as private property and how protection can be both private and optional? I mean you can disagree after reading it, but at least you wouldn't say there's no alternative.

Sure, and thanks. I'm not very well-read in economy but am working on it.

Do you have anything specific of theirs in mind?

Re: Life as a Service

#156

Post by [deleted] »

snitko wrote: post #98
edanm wrote: post #73

A few of these points are interesting, because things don't have to be that way (e.g. various government-granted monopolies). But most of these points are uninteresting, in the sense that I cannot easily imagine alternatives. Public goods are a simple example - there's an economic reason it is not possible to let people opt-out of public goods: you can't not protect some people, so it is in their interest to opt-out…

May I refer you to David D. Friedman and Murray Rothbard for explanations of how public property would be so much better off as private property and how protection can be both private and optional? I mean you can disagree after reading it, but at least you wouldn't say there's no alternative.

[deleted]

Re: Life as a Service

#157

Post by anonymoushn »

a-priori wrote: post #145
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.

People are artificially prevented from entering these professions in the United States. A person who spends several years in a library learning about the interpretation and application of the law, and who would be capable of passing a bar exam, is not allowed to take the exam. In all but 2 states, to gain the privilege of taking the exam, he or she must first pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a law school. In the remaining 2 states, if he or she is old enough (23 or 25, if I recall correctly), it would suffice to instead work for a judge for a couple years.

This keeps the supply of professionals low and allows the organizations that sell proffesion-practicing certifications to collect a rent. It's a good scam, and I would prefer to be on the other side of it. As I probably won't be able to achieve this, my close second preference would be for the scam to not exist.

Re: Life as a Service

#158

Post by [deleted] »

a-priori wrote: post #145
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.

[deleted]

Re: Life as a Service

#159

Post by forensic »

AngrySkillzz wrote: post #139
potatolicious wrote: post #106

Given how often libertarianism comes up around and here and some of the attitudes that are repeated demonstrated, it's pretty clear that a large segment of HN's population has never been in a disadvantaged situation in life, either in economics, geography, or race.

I'm not sure that this article is advocating libertarianism per-se, more that it is pointing out oddities in our current system. It doesn't make the claim that life would be better off with less support or regulation.

They're only oddities to well-off straight white able-bodied males with no perspective. These "oddities" exist for good practical reasons and the government is there for all people not just the nerd faction who decide they only want the government functions that benefit them personally.

Re: Life as a Service

#160

Post by Zak »

T-hawk wrote: post #148
winter_blue wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.)

Consider though, that most people do not need serious surgery. Most people who do do not need it yearly. My yearly medical expenses during the past five years have consisted of two fillings and some over the counter drugs. The yearly average ould cover a decent plate of sushi.

That means there's about $3620 left over for someone else's more serious issues. Well, except for the part where I paid those expenses out of pocket so they don't show up in the Federal budget.

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