Re: Byproduct of Bush?

David Friedman wrote:
In article <ghnc2s2273q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, whitroth <whitroth@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
David Friedman wrote:
In article <ghi6pn0q3t@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, whitroth <whitroth@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

I disagree. I've never seen or heard of libertarians talking about
organizing society to explicitly benefit the majority of the
population. All I hear is how the Invisible Hand will do all that (and
whose hand it is, or how it prevents monopolies, or, for that matter,
the Mafia, remains unclear).

Supposing you want to define socialism as "that system that benefits
the majority of the population," and you believe, as libertarians do,
that a libertarian society is better for the majority, indeed almost
all, of the population, where's the problem? Of course you (Mark, not
the hypothetical libertarian of the previous sentence) don't think the
libertarian society is better for the majority--but then, I don't think
the society you want is better for the majority either. Does that mean
that I don't think you are a socialist?

For what it's worth, Adam Smith went to some trouble to argue that the
proper criterion for judging a system of institutions was its effect on
the bulk of the population.

Let me expand a bit more (I actually just did this in another thread):
anarchists (and socialists) agree that social organization, not based
solely on monetary transactions, is just fine. In the case of the
anarchists, they believe in voluntary organization. AFAIK, libertarians
believe in the smaller the organization (aka "government") the better.

Why "the organization aka "government?""

Don't you believe there are other forms of organization?

Why would you think I don't? I know I've mentioned here on rasff that every
sf club is an anarchic organization (ok, some more anarchic than others
<g>).

Also, why "monetary transactions?" Money is just one tool that people
use for voluntary transactions. Libertarians have no objection to other

Because many, if not most, libertarians I've read or argued with seem to
head toward *everything* being a monetary transaction, and frequently argue
that, for example, there is no such thing as altruism. No, I'm not making
this up.

forms--indeed, one of the most visible spokesmen for the Open Source
movement is a libertarian. I put the full text of books on my web page.

Don't I know him. He and I have argued, and known each other, for many, many
years.
<snip>
mark
--
"The legitimate powers of government, extend to such acts
only as are injurious to others. But it does me no
injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or
no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson


.

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