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From: Eric Watt Forste <arkuat@pobox.com>
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: IRS regulations in business
Date: Monday, July 21, 1997 4:04 PM
Abraham Moses Genen writes:
> With all due respect I must regrettably inform you that your
> perception of the interaction between legislation and social change
> is incorrect.
>
> At least that has been my experience during the last fourty years
> in governmental administration, legislative drafting and analysis.
Could you please be more specific? What events have occurred in
your forty years of experience in government that cause you to
disagree with Perry's analysis? The four lines that you posted
(after quoting *all* of Perry's post) have no content: they're a
simple assertion of your experience without any details or evidence,
and you might as well have forgone posting them at all for all the
useful information they contain.
Essentially you've informed all of us that you disagree with
Perry, and that's all. Did you relly need to quote every single
line of Perry's post to do that? Do you think that your
informing us that you disagree with Perry did anything to
improve the quality of information being presented to list
subscribers?
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ expectation foils perception -pcdDear Eric and other fellow Extropians,
I respectfully suspect that Eric may be kvetching for the sake of kvetching.
During my service to the US Congress I was involved in drafting and/or analyzing several thousand pieces of legislation that effected and (hopefully) helped to advance the cause of social evolution.
I could name more than a few pieces of legislation I helped to formulate but it would be quite meaningless in the overall context of our continuing social evolution. Obviously, any given policy determination has, by itself, usually, a very minor effect.
Possibly, part of the problem is that almost no one outside of a few professionals are aware how much legislation is introduced in the House and Senate any given term. Much of what is drafted, amended and passed is quite technical and, unfortunately, quite complex and arcane.
Almost all of the public is quite unaware of how the legislative process actually works. Among the many things I'm still learning is that any relationship between political science as taught in most colleges and universities and governmental administration as it actually functions and transpires is purely coincidental. Civics, as taught in almost all secondary schools is, at best, horribly superficial and frequently misguided. The same, of course, can be said for the teaching of evolutionary biology at most academic levels.
During my current work with the NYS legislature, I frequently focus on consumer protection legislation as an example in point. But, most of my modifications to the general business law, the general obligations law, etc., receive scant public notice.
Since the focus of this discussion is supposed to be on the philosophy of advancing humanity through various means I dont see any point in being any more specific. My purpose in this academic exchange is to expand my horizons by learning as well as expressing my experiential views.
I trust that you will all respect that.
Enjoy!!!
AMG