On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 06:23:45PM +1000, Alex Hutton wrote:
Craig Sanders wrote:
To start with, their foundational article of faith, the "free market" that they bleat on and on about does not exist, never has existed, and never can exist - it's a theoretical ideal that assumes a perfectly frictionless market with perfectly *rational* actors (both buyers and sellers) who *always* act in their own best interest, and that there are no systemic factors that inhibit competition. It's a thought-experiment, not a description (or even a prescription) of the real world.
A free market does not require [blah,blah,blah]
you know, if you're going to blather on about something, you'd sound a little less foolish if you actually bothered to do some minimal research on the subject. it might enable you to get away with pretending you had some understanding of what you were talking about.
ps: please read up on real libertarianism, as defined in the rest of the world, and before american anarcho-capitalists hijacked the term. here's a good starting point:
No thanks. I do not see how you can have compulsory central planning and still call it a system of anarchy.
you obviously didn't read ANY of that page. i'll bet you just saw the word 'socialism' and responded in a knee-jerk fashion. where's the "compulsory central planning" in this (the first three paragraphs of the linked wikipedia article)? Libertarian socialism (sometimes called social anarchism, and sometimes left libertarianism) is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic society without private property in the means of production. Libertarian socialists believe in converting present-day private property into the commons or public goods, while retaining respect for personal property. Libertarian socialism is opposed to coercive forms of social organization. It promotes free association in place of government and opposes the social relations of capitalism, such as wage labor. The term libertarian socialism is used by some socialists to differentiate their philosophy from state socialism or by some as a synonym for left anarchism. Adherents of libertarian socialism assert that a society based on freedom and equality can be achieved through abolishing authoritarian institutions that control certain means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite. Libertarian socialism also constitutes a tendency of thought that promotes the identification, criticism, and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of life. Accordingly, libertarian socialists believe that "the exercise of power in any institutionalized form - whether economic, political, religious, or sexual - brutalizes both the wielder of power and the one over whom it is exercised". Libertarian socialists generally place their hopes in decentralized means of direct democracy such as libertarian municipalism, citizens' assemblies, trade unions, and workers' councils. i guess in your alternate reality of Loony Libertaria, "decentralised democracy" is synonymous with "compulsory central planning". one of the primary differences between american style Libertarianism (aka anarcho-capitalism) and the above is that anarcho-capitalists believe that wealth (or more correctly, control over the means of production) entitles someone to economically enslave other people, and that such slavery is GOOD for everyone involved and good for society. libertarian socialists disagree, vehemently.
Rohan McLeod wrote :
-the consequence of globalisation is to move jobs to places with low labor costs and raise unemployment elsewhere. -the consequence of inadequately regulated stock-markets are non-productive booms and busts there is a longer 'rant' here:
Those two points are largely due to fractional reserve lending, central banking and fiat currency.
oh no, you're a gold-standard loon too. let's see, do you have the trifecta - do you believe that there is a conspiracy involving Prince Philip and the World Wildlife Federation to depopulate the world? That "environmentalism" is just a code-word for "genocide"?
All of which are forms of intervention in the market by governments.
as are: copyrights, patents, property laws, national borders, passports, health and safety regulations, financial regulations, stock markets, limitation of liability for companies, granting of corporate charters, legal recognition of corporations as "persons", and millions of other things. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #98: The vendor put the bug there.