Subject:
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Re: Don Quixote puts away his lance
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Sep 1999 16:11:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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1241 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Josh Spaulding writes:
> > I think competitive improvement requires the postulate of an informed, active
> > consumer base, which does not seem descriptive of America today.
>
> Granted. No one said it would be easy to move in the direction I'd like
> to see us move in. But in turn I'm sure you'd admit that the potential
> is there for the regeneration of such a base.
Of course there's a potential, but such a regeneration would not be in the
interest of manufacturers, so I wouldn't count on them to foster it by
providing
the public with balanced information unless required by law.
This is part of my problem with Libertarianism; as someone once said, "the
problem with utopia is that it requires utopians." Unless we maintain an
educated and informed populace that is willing to make sacrifices to improve
the
system, pure capitalism would devolve into exploitation.
What really frustrates me, though, is that I could say essentially the same
thing about democracy, socialism, or any other governmental or economic sytem
that I can think of. So my main political belief is that we need good
educational opportunities for everyone, available at state expense for those
who
cannot afford it.
> I'll claim that there are some examples but not actually dig them up
> unless it becomes a bone of contention. Telephony is rather a muddy
> example but I'm much more pleased with the phones I have now than back
> prior to 1976.
I can't vouch for that one, since I wasn't old enough to use phones in '76. But
I'm not picking bones.
> > Although there's a lot about Libertarianism that I don't agree with,
> > I like the "stop whining and start providing effective feedback" attitude;
> > and I like the idea of working a system to try to achieve one's goals,
> > as opposed to immediately using reactionary rhetoric to denounce the
> > system itself.
>
> We do that too, mind you. :-)
Precisely my point. I'm more or less a liberal, since I think that there cannot
be a separation of state and economics, and that the government ought to use
its
economic power as a greater boon to the poor than to the rich. But through
discussions with a Libertarian friend of mine, I realized that I was doing a
lot
of complaining and denouncing of the system, but not much corrective action
within the system. I think that's an unfortunate trait of many leftists,
especially of the academic variety.
> Time to trot out the hoary example about what if cars were like
> computers? LOL... While some
> level of adverts do occur I posit that we really WOULD be driving 100
> mpg cars by now if that's what people really wanted.
I'm just glad my car doesn't crash as often as my Mac...
Josh Spaulding
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Don Quixote puts away his lance
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| (...) Granted. No one said it would be easy to move in the direction I'd like to see us move in. But in turn I'm sure you'd admit that the potential is there for the regeneration of such a base. (...) I'll claim that there are some examples but not (...) (25 years ago, 29-Sep-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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