Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> In Sweden private for profit schools and schools run by the municipalities compete with each other. All of them are funded by the tax payers and they get a certain amount of money for every student. How the hell can a school be "private" , while being funded by taxpayers?
The privatization of rewards while the public bears the risk is a pretty well established business model these days.
David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
341–350 of 373 posts
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> In Sweden private for profit schools and schools run by the municipalities compete with each other. All of them are funded by the tax payers and they get a certain amount of money for every student. How the hell can a school be "private" , while being funded by taxpayers?
They call these "PPP" public private partnerships. What happens is cronies of the ruling party are given money to avoid risk and get to run the business extracting all profits for themselves. The taxpayer is told hey this would cost 10x as much if we ran it.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally, improvements and occupation make it your home. Somebody coming in to take land containing a house you built, a barn you raised, cattle you bred on a crop you are growing, are taking what's yours. Take this away and nobody would use land at all. Been done in history again and again; result always the same : collapse of farming, which means collapse of the govt.
>> Generally, improvements and occupation make it your home. Somebody coming in to take land containing a house you built, a barn you raised, cattle you bred on a crop you are growing, are taking what's yours. So nobody should be able to own land they aren't using for anything and I should be able to just go and occupy it? Cool. >> Take this away and nobody would use land at all. Been done in history again and again;…
Why would the same rule not apply to you? In other words, you can't just "occupy" land, you'll have to use it, just like everyone else.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Generally, improvements and occupation make it your home. Somebody coming in to take land containing a house you built, a barn you raised, cattle you bred on a crop you are growing, are taking what's yours. So nobody should be able to own land they aren't using for anything and I should be able to just go and occupy it? Cool. >> Take this away and nobody would use land at all. Been done in history again and again;…
>> So nobody should be able to own land they aren't using for anything and I should be able to just go and occupy it? Cool. Why would the same rule not apply to you? In other words, you can't just "occupy" land, you'll have to use it , just like everyone else.
Who's saying I wouldn't use it? It's pretty radical for a hard-property-rights libertarian to concede I could just go up and take someone's land if I judge it's not in proper use!
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was already building a reply to that. What it seems to boil down to is "I know that I can't define my terms and I know that we don't agree about morality but god-dammit my one moral principle should still be the basis of everything". Needless to say, I disagree.
>> I know that we don't agree about morality but god-dammit my one moral principle should still be the basis of everything Ah yes, "we just disagree on morality" is a classic avoidance-technique for a Statist that refuses to accept reality. But actually, no we don't. Not if you're sane and not a sociopath. We've both got a conscience, and it usually warns us when we're doing something even somewhat wrong.
Ah yes, "if you disagree with my interpretation of morality you must be a sociopath" is a classic avoidance technique for a libertarian that refuses to accept reality.
>> We've both got a conscience, and it usually warns us when we're doing something even somewhat wrong.
Not everyone's conscience tells them the same thing, neither does everyone's conscience tell them that the NAP is the root rule of the universe. Even yours doesn't as you've admitted in a variety of places.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> The NAP is a reasonably well defined moral principle. Therein lies the problem though, even if we accept the NAP, we can never agree on what is force or violence and what is the initiation of force. Particularly where it concerns libertarian dialogue in which anything and everything can be and is construed as violence, with the bizarre exception of property rights. It's not reasonably well defined, it's vague and…
>> Therein lies the problem though, even if we accept the NAP, we can never agree on what is force or violence and what is the initiation of force No it doesn't. You're only making a problem where none really exists. Complaining that the definitions of everyday words are unclear is just a bullshit distraction. If that were the case, we simply could not communicate at all. >> Actually I value pragmatism and social uti…
It is indeed very hard to communicate with people like yourself who insist on seeing everything as violence and aggression, but we must try.
And we absolutely can (and do) disagree about definitions. Have you never heard the old socialist line "all property is theft"? Now if I understand you correctly, theft is a form of violence, so to some people property itself is a problem of violence and aggression.
>> Yes, well, now we're in the territory of collectivist thinking, which is just completely ass-backwards considering we're all just individuals, not part of The Borg.
And we all live on a shared planet and all of our actions impact on other people, you do not live on an asteroid with no other people around. Get over it.
>> Collectivism is one of the supporting pillars of States. We're bombarded with the idea that we must all be subject to a ruling class for the common good, that we need to pay taxes to help poor people, and so on.
Nobody I know says you must be subject to a ruling class, though many do say we must be subject to a set of rules that we come up with collectively. Many of them may be covered by NAP, many are not. Otherwise I don't disagree - taxes are generally a good thing, though we should fight inefficiency where we can. And I speak as an earner in one of the 1% highest earning households in my country.
>> In case you haven't noticed, you already find yourself in Corruptopia.
I know, right? And just look at us! Highest standards of living in the world and highest standards of living in history! And look at those places where there's little or no government, they collapse into tribalism, violence, warlords and total social decay! Corruptopia is pretty sweet right?
I'll not deny we have problems (it's Corruptopia after all), but not the sort that I see being solved by adherence to a bizarre, simplistic and flawed moral (non-)axiom.
>> The obvious answer was "no", and that's enough. We're not talking about edge cases here, because there are countless, and wading through them is pointless. There are even more circumstances where it takes zero effort to adhere to the NAP.
No, the obvious answer, and the one you explicitly agreed with is that it depends on the circumstances. It's almost as if there were other moral principles at work that you allow to override your NAP from time to time. How odd!
>> See, in reality, there is no problem with the NAP, even if no moral rule can "cover" every possible situation ever. That just can't be required. As mentioned, the best we can do is "close enough", and the NAP certainly is.
A rule that is as full of holes as that, as disputed in definition, is not a good rule to use as the basis of society.
>> See, in reality, there is no problem with the NAP, even if no moral rule can "cover" every possible situation ever.
If no moral rule can cover every possible situation then how about we don't try and structure society about one rule eh?
>> Right, and what fucking sense does it make to physically assault someone for saying something bad about you or your girlfriend? Insecure much? Feeling violent?
Me, no, but you said everyone knows it's wrong. I was giving the counterpoint that pop-culture is filled with violence and aggression, even amongst the 'good guys'.
>> You know that the NAP works just fine.
I know that it's not the be-all and end-all of the basis for a good society.
>> Who's anyone to tell you what you should do, as long as you don't harm others?
Where the line of harming others starts is entirely subjective. A lot of people deny the anthropogenic global warming/climate change is real, and so continue to wantonly fill the air with greenhouse gasses. They don't see it as harming anyone yet scientifically speaking they are harming everyone for multiple generations.
It's just not as simple as you like to think, and the results of a balanced mix of property rights and collectivism has so far resulted in the best societies the planet has ever seen. Sorry if I seem reluctant to throw that away based on a platitude.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
>He argues that expanding government crowds out non-governmental social activity, giving the example of hurricane response My house was ruined by Hurricane Sandy, I am grateful that our Republican governor went against the grain and backed a relief fund program. Fuck you and your advocacy of disaster capitalism. Towns were wiped off the map, if you think the solution is a bunch of vultures looking to profit from a tr…
First off, I can tell you've never read Nock and have no intention to do so. I'm disappointed by this level of discourse. Secondly, why do you assume that the only two institutions in the world are the government and the market? That itself is emblematic of the erosion of the social fabric in America.
Secondly, why do you assume that I assume that? It's quite emblematic of the erosion of logic in libertarian "rationality". If you read my post, you can see I touched on outreach by the community, which isn't enough after devastating disaster.
We had volunteers come from all over the country, that helped with the most superficial matters: ie removing debris, evangelizing. That was temporary immediate relief and they were not seen again after a month.
It wasn't enough to fix the heavy structural damage. It wasn't enough to find shelter for people without homes. But go on, tell me how we're domesticated humans for exhausting all of our options and possibly maybe getting funds to rebuild.
Social fabric in America has been eroded away by poverty, lack of opportunity, alienation, and the good old divide and conquer method.
Please expound on how you believe government intervention is the cause of our ills.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#348There is no such thing as society - Thatcher
It reads slightly different in context, but then you probably know that: "There is no such thing as society. There is a living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate."
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally, improvements and occupation make it your home. Somebody coming in to take land containing a house you built, a barn you raised, cattle you bred on a crop you are growing, are taking what's yours. Take this away and nobody would use land at all. Been done in history again and again; result always the same : collapse of farming, which means collapse of the govt.
>> Generally, improvements and occupation make it your home. Somebody coming in to take land containing a house you built, a barn you raised, cattle you bred on a crop you are growing, are taking what's yours. So nobody should be able to own land they aren't using for anything and I should be able to just go and occupy it? Cool. >> Take this away and nobody would use land at all. Been done in history again and again;…
I agree moral absolutism is tricky. But think of it as first principles. You have to argue from something or its all situational ethics, which depend entirely upon your point of view.
Re: David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The problem in the US isn't capitalism, it's that the government interferes extensively in the economy. Well... maybe the problem is that the economy interferes extensively in the government. > Building a society is the responsibility of each individual who values it. Using government force in pursuit of that goal leads only to the co-option and disenfranchisement Simon complains about. Individuals have to band tog…
> Individuals have to band together to accomplish things because at some point one individual isn't enough. In democratic society such a banding, supported by the people and for the people, is called a government. Individuals who band together to accomplish things can also be called a corporation.
Do you genuinely fail to see the difference or is that comment just for the sake of that (weak) argument ?