Subject:
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Re: Preaching to the Choir
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:29:16 GMT
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Viewed:
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2268 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
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But wouldn’t that play havoc with comparative advantage?
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Hopefully. That’s the goal.
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Seriously? Have you read “The Road to Serfdom”? I’m just curious.
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I haven’t. If I was going to take the time to read this or Machinery of Freedom
(which I’ve meant to read forever) which would you suggest?
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OK, can I run a thought experiment here for a sec?
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But of course!
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Suppose I’m a brain
surgeon and a darn good one. Save lots of lives every day I go in to work.
But one day I decide my real calling is digging holes. So I go out in my yard
and put in a 40 hour week digging holes.
They’re very nice holes, really, but they serve no useful purpose, in fact
they detract from the value of my yard. However I worked really really hard
at it, I wasn’t goofing off at all, I put in 40 hours fair and square.
Should I get paid 40 hours at my normal rate (whatever that is, I am guessing
a standard wage in your system) for those holes? Why or why not? If so, who
decided I should? If not, who decided I shouldn’t?
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Digging holes (useful ones, that is) is perfectly honorable work and should be
paid for. In the scenario that you write above, the holes were not ordered by
individuals or by The People. So no. In that case, you were pursuing an
avocation...I guess. If someone wants to order holes from you and pay you one
man-hour per hour of your work (a currency that I’d point out they only get by
working an hour) then that’s fine. If you want to go to a place where holes are
needed, that’s fine too. It was decided by the person(s) paying you.
More likely, you would feel really good about your special talents and skills
and would prefer to work on brain surgery orders while paying others to dig
holes for you.
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The very desire to have more than others is a sickness that we probably
can’t help.
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How so? How is wanting to have a Lexus instead of a Tercel a “sickness”?
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I’m not sure what you want me to say. It’s obviously just an opinion. There’s
nothing wrong with wanting to have a Lexus. It’s only sick when you want to
secure an unfair advantage over others. I can well imagine that you might want
fancy cars more than me. You might work 40-50 hour weeks to assure that you get
that. I, on the other hand drive a ‘92 Nissan Sentra (no, really!) and would
far rather work only ten hours per week and raise my kids by hand.
Chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Preaching to the Choir
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| (...) Do you want a more thorough and scholarly treatment of one particular aspect of this overall question (how best to organize societies), or a broader but less thorough treatment of many aspects? Road to Serfdom focuses on fewer aspects. (...) (20 years ago, 10-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Preaching to the Choir
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| (...) Seriously? Have you read "The Road to Serfdom"? I'm just curious. (...) OK, can I run a thought experiment here for a sec? Suppose I'm a brain surgeon and a darn good one. Save lots of lives every day I go in to work. But one day I decide my (...) (20 years ago, 9-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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