Marc2b
Posts: 6660
Joined: 8/7/2006
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quote:
Hi Marc, you really missed my point, you didn't even make the bale. Not only off target, but 'Maggie's Draws' totally. Here, one more time....The free market as you define it, exists, I've not said otherwise...however, the very term is misleading, false, inaccurate, deceptive in it's entireity. Yes, I have the right to either buy or not to buy, you have the right to sell or not to sell, if I have the money set for your 'pickup truck' and you do not wish to sell it to me, but choose to sell it to another...for whatever the reason...the free market exists in the classic sense. I am not debating that concept.
Okay, so we are agreed on that much. As for all the rest it all boils down to two things. Life is not fair and money buys power and influence. I am not disagreeing with either, it is the response to such things that concern me. Politics is filled with people who want to make life fair. Political arguments often come down to "you’re being treated unfairly, vote for me and I’ll set things right." Ninety-nine percent of the off topic debates here on Collarme boil down to arguments of what’s fair.
Law in a modern representative democracy is, in theory, about making life as fair as possible (to make life completely fair would be impossible, not that people haven’t tried). In practice it is about various interests (modern day reflections of our tribal roots) competing with each other for advantage. There are winners and there are losers. This is the reality of our species, whether it is a neolithic tribe being chased of it’s hunting lands by a stronger tribe or Walmart moving into town and driving the smaller local merchants out of business.
We can’t have a perfectly fair society and to go all the way in the opposite direction and have a completely lawless society wouldn’t be much fun either – the answer is rarely found at the extremes. What we want (or at least, what I would like, but I presume I am not alone) is a society where each person is free to chart the course of their own life. To pursue their own interests, their own desires, their own loves. Whether any one person succeeds in such an endeavor will depend upon many factors including intelligence level, educational opportunities, health, cultural attitudes, economic opportunities and just plain luck. To expect that the government can regulate society to such an extent that all these things can be made equal (the so called, completely mythological, "level playing field") is absurd. The only thing that will result is tyranny in the name of someone’s vision of fairness (the Soviet Union was an excellent example of this).
While we obviously need some laws (e.g. don’t kill people) to protect our rights, law should not be used to benefit some people at the expense of others (although this is what about ninety percent of all laws do). It’s the free market, not the "fair" market. I don’t know why you were refused by the MC company but to me the fact that the refused you is not the point – their right to refuse you is. It’s their company, they’ll do business with who they want to. So long as each side is obeying the law, I see no reason to bring the government into it.
Every decisions carries consequences. If the MC company is losing out on business by refusing to do business with you, then it’s their own fault. And this is where your (and so many others) worry about the rich and powerful comes in. You won’t get an argument from me that the rich and powerful seek to rig things in their favor. First, looking at the big picture, to believe that power is a permanent thing is to believe that the universe is static. All power must wane and be replaced with a new power. But, secondly, there is the question of the current abuse of power. To often, people’s "solution" to this problem is to replace the current power with a new power (via elections, revolts, new laws, etc.). This is what humanity has been doing more or less since day one. It hasn’t worked yet so why do we expect it to work now? Why do we believe that the new power will be any less corrupt than the power it replaced?
We will never achieve a one hundred percent corrupt free society but I do believe that we can do a lot better than we have. We cant have fairness in outcome, nor even fairness in opportunity but we can have fairness in law. Laws must be consistent and apply to everyone equally. If we have failed to do this then we the people have only ourselves to blame. The problem is that most people say they want fairness in law but really mean they want advantage in law – and so the same old, same old, continues unabated. People say they want freedom of speech but when that freedom leads to a preponderance of conservative voices on talk radio suddenly they want the government to step in and regulate. Believing in freedom means respecting other people’s rights even if you don’t like what they’re saying. Believing in the free market means respecting other peoples rights to not do business with you if they don’t want to. You don’t have to like it, just respect it. If liberals want more liberal voices on talk radio then they should stop whining and make liberal talk shows more entertaining. If one MC company doesn’t want to do business with you then you’ll have convince them otherwise and if you can’t, then take your business elsewhere.
It all starts with the individual. Winston Churchill remarked that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. I likewise contend that the free market is the worst economic system except for all the others. Both share a common weakness. For both to work the majority (a sizable majority) needs to be decent people of good will. The fight for a more just society will not be won in the arena of politics (same old, same old) but in the realm of the individual. Morality is to choose what is right over what is convenient. It is incumbent upon each of us to strive to be moral for our own sakes, the sake of those around us, and as an example to others. I don’t know if we’ll ever get there, but I continue to hope.
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Do you know what the most awesome thing about being an Atheist is? You're not required to hate anybody!
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