Libertarianism and Robber Barons

[The Dharma Bum]

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[The Dharma Bum]

[exploited]

What are you talking about?

There is no indication that private property or money is becoming obsolete. Literally none whatsoever. That we use plastic cards instead of physical money says nothing about the underlying system of currency. There is no indication that currency is moving away from the centralized, national model either. Suggest a world without money, and 9/10 people will laugh at you and say it is impossible (and therefore, it is).

Further, dwindling resources will reinforce the dominant position of money and private property in our society, not diminish them. Sure, the definitions of private property has changed, but not the basic structure of it. This may lead to catastrophe, as you say... but so will pursuing goals that are unreachable, instead of focusing on that which is attainable... small changes leading to larger ones, ala chaos theory.

That is just reality, there is no way around that. It is literally impossible for you to affect enough people to make that change within the next hundred years, let alone within your lifetime, regardless of how worthy it may be. Spend your energies else where.

[The Dharma Bum]

Basically, when you say libertarianism is is unworkable because it fails to address control over the individual by commercial interests I have to point out that the point of statism is to impose control of the individual by those very commercial interests by force. Those interests control the state.

Already there are numerous examples of the state requiring the purchase of various financial instruments. So, yes, it is an important issue.

The terms of a contract cannot be enforced by violence. You simply default on the contract, it screws your credit rating and no one will do business with you because you are untrustworthy. No one comes and puts a boot on your face or throws you in prison for not paying your bills.

Of course if full socialism was implemented you wouldn't have any bills. Electricity etc would be a public commodity, the usage of which would be determined by local consensus. Individuals could use what resources were available for their use, which is reasonable. I believe you have stated before that you think there should be a ceiling on how much wealth an individual is allowed to accumulate?

Same thing. People should have full use of what resources are available, but in our system there are people who have far, far too much and others who have far, far too little and it is because of the reasons I've stated. The laws of the state make it this way, mostly in the most dumb and brutal way possible. Look how our commercial interests are supported in other countries, where we feel we can act with impunity. We both know that's wrong.

[The Dharma Bum]

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[The Dharma Bum]

[Homer]