From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Jan 16 2002 - 12:07:22 MST
> > Certainly, there are poor. It is also an undeniable fact that
> > the freest economies in the world have the fewest poor and the
> > richest poor. There is so much surplus food here that the poor
> > in America are more likely to suffer from obesity than starvation;
> > housing and health care are the biggest problems. It's no
> > accident that food is almost a free market but housing and
> > health care are heavily regulated.
>
> So are you agreeing or denying than even in the free-market
> (relatively) of food that there are shortfalls suffered by even
> some American citizens including children?
You're getting very tiresome and evasive, Samantha. I have /never/
denied that, I never will, and your continued insinuation that I do
is annoying, and your insistence that it is somehow the relevant
point is as well. /Of course/ our system isn't perfect now--only
an idiot would think that. The question is /what direction/ to
move toward to improve it. I advocate moving toward a /freer/
market because history has shown that freer countries feed more
people. You advocate--well, I still don't know what you advocate
because you haven't said anything meaningful on this thread about
what /you/ think the solutions are. Until you do--until you can
show me some evidence that you have a solution /better/ than mine,
all your whining that my solution isn't perfect is empty rhetoric.
> A more free economy doesn't really say much unless you say in
> what ways you will do this and also in what ways you will keep
> these people from very dire consequences while the changes to
> the economy take effect and hopefully help.
What a hopelessly pessimistic attitude. The idea that people
must be forced to be compassionate has no place in Extropian
thought, and no connection with reality. People /are/ humane
and compassionate. People /do/ help those in need. I utterly
reject any philosophy that denies this, and any political
system that assumes otherwise. Mandated solutions to social
problems all assume that voluntary help won't work. But
voluntary help has worked well, works well now, and always
will, because real human beings are not generally the heartless
monsters you seem to be assuming.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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