Subject:
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Re: Art Debate Was: [Re: Swearing?]
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 9 Jan 2000 22:34:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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2216 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote in message <3877B741.22DBA4E0@voyager.net>...
> <3876E1AE.144F396A@voyager.net> <slrn87dqa8.j61.mattdm@jadzia.bu.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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>
> You're right, I jumped in the middle and didn't check assumptions first.
> Fuggedaboutit. Frank's doing fine anyway.
>
> However, I do want to point out that you're not going to find the
> assertion that "every community will get a library" made in Libertarian
> writing. Libertopia is not, and does not claim to be, perfect.
And in fact my assertion, which may not have been perfectly stated is not
"every community will have a library", but that if the value of a community
library is sufficient, every community will have one, though I think the
"every" would only be absolute in a "perfect" Liberatopia, which we will
never quite actualize. I'm not convinced that a community library will have
that value, however, I do believe that most communities will have them (for
one thing, they already exist, and the existing books probably have more
value staying in a community library, that being sold or otherwise
distributed, to extract the government from the business of running a
library, so the library would likely be sold as a whole. I would bet that
most of the libraries would either be bought by community groups formed to
buy the library, some might become public because the community has a
unanimous vote to keep the community library, a bunch will be bought by
corporations and individuals as contributions to the community, and a few
will disappear).
Another note: the web is fast reducing the need for libraries. I haven't
been inside a library in several years (and the last time I think was to get
tax forms, now available on the web, and unnecessary in Liberatopia). Of
course public web access sites will be necessary as not everyone can afford
a computer at home. Many of these exist today, run by charities. Others may
get built by companies realizing that the cost of a few public access web
sites (which happen to open to their e-commerce site) would gain them enough
customers to justify the cost.
Schools on the other hand, I do see and being almost universal. Clearly an
educated person is more valuable than an uneducated person. Also, a person
who has enough value to be able to do meaningful work, is much less likely
to resort to crime. I believe a significant portion of crime is done by
individuals who see themselves as being so low on the totem pole, and so
incapable of living a meaningful life, that they have nothing to loose by
resorting to crime. A year ago, I would have wanted the government to solve
this problem, now that I understand the Libertarian message better, I see
that it is the responsibility of the people who would be affected by that
crime to decide how to manage the problem, I suspect they will find the most
cost effective way is to provide sufficient means for the majority of those
people to rise above the need to commit crimes. Of course a huge percentage
of the crime is all tied into the drug trade, and if we extract ourselves
from the mess created by the "war on drugs" we would see a tremendous drop
in crime (though I predict a transitional period where the crime rate would
increase because of the druglords fighting to keep the power they have been
granted by the war on drugs - hopefully they will all kill themselves off,
and not bump off too many of us, and hopefully a few would realize that the
best way to keep their power would be to turn their enterprises to socially
acceptable endeavors).
A better statement of my assertion is that any "public" service currently
provided by the government, which is worth the cost, will get provided in
those communities which can afford the cost, and in many communities which a
3rd party (charity, individual, or corporation) value the benefit to that
community enough to justify the cost. To this extent, I believe that
affordable sustenance, housing, medical care, and education will be
available to just about everyone, though the quality of same will vary
greatly.
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Art Debate Was: [Re: Swearing?]
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| <3876E1AE.144F396A@voyager.net> <slrn87dqa8.j61.matt...ia.bu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit You're right, I jumped in the middle and didn't check assumptions first. Fuggedaboutit. Frank's doing fine (...) (24 years ago, 8-Jan-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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