Rich, (01)
I don't blame you for any complaint. But I think you are a starry-eyed
idealist who is blinded by ideas instead of facts. (02)
RC
>> it's about force levied by governments against free markets. (03)
JFS
> I agree. And if you look who's pulling the strings behind
> the curtains, it's the corporations. (04)
RC
> Only with collusion from the govt. Lobbyists "give" money to
> their favorite legislators (the ones who vote the way their
> clients say) to help them get elected. (05)
Didn't you notice the word 'lobbyist'? Guess who pays for them?
Didn't you notice the word 'elected'? Guess who votes? (06)
If you want to blame anybody, blame the voters. If you want to
know who is a voter, look in the mirror. (07)
People fought and died to get that vote 200+ years ago. This year
is the 50th anniversary of the fighting and dying in Alabama and
Mississippi by people who wanted to vote and by other people who
wanted to stop them from getting the right to vote. (08)
People on both sides of that fight recognized that the power to vote
is enormous -- at least in a country that isn't (yet) totally corrupt. (09)
RC
> My father's favorite (bless his departed soul) is what he called
> Cooper's law: "people are no damn good!" (010)
There's a lot of truth to that, but the motto on the other side of
the coin is also true: "People never consider themselves to be evil." (011)
Unfortunately, even the "do-gooders" tend to do a lot of evil because
they don't fully understand all the implications of their actions.
But *nobody* can understand *all* the implications. (012)
Every organization of any kind is made up of people. The more people
in it, the greater its power for good and for evil. What they call
the organization is irrelevant: government, business, religion, mafia,
charity, mob, etc. Fundamentally, they're all the same. They're just
a way of magnifying the power of whoever is in charge. (013)
Civilization depends on these organizations. There is no way to get
rid of them. Another starry-eyed idealist, Karl Marx, thought that
if you change the way people think, you don't need government. But
that idea failed miserably. (014)
Another idealist with a bit more common sense was Jesus Christ.
He admitted that you need to give the gov't its denarius. If you
create a power vacuum, you get the Soviet Union when some criminal
takes over. Or you get Somalia or Syria when the criminals keep
fighting forever. (015)
John (016)
PS: My definition of 'criminal' is a do-gooder who gets power
and stays in power too long. Power corrupts. (017)
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