Stability

[ubermammal]

I went to a talk at the Libertarian Alliance conference criticising the EU for "hyper-regulation" of our daily lives, with strong suggestions that we might well be better off leaving the EU and just operating open-border and open-market policies ourselves instead of doing it in the particular ways laid down by Brussels

Comments

[xandratheblue]

I'm glad you've come to accept that whilst a decision based on all available, rather than possible, information can be a valid one (i.e. one that can be made at all and still be thought of as rational), if not exactly right

[ubermammal]

"I'm glad you've come to accept that whilst a decision based on all available, rather than possible, information can be a valid one (i.e. one that can be made at all and still be thought of as rational), if not exactly right

[ubermammal]

"To assume otherwise is to assume that people, even when they have no idea what's going on, will still work towards a greater good. Unfortunately, people don't. When there is instability, they look for scape-goats, to help themselves and their loved ones first, to ignore the injustice to another to give themselves an advantage in life."

Certainly - not least because any people who don't do that will usually not survive to pass on their altruistic ideas to others

[xandratheblue]

"Isn't the situation in your example solved fairly effectively by replacing the NHS with private healthcare? No taxes paid, you get treated if you can pay for it, and if you can't then you trade on your value to society to get the cash

[xandratheblue]

Another problem is your idea of criticism and analysis skills - it assumes that everyone can have them or will want to have them if they can be gained. There will always be dissenters in pretty much everything, but even so, we then again come up against the wall of self-interest; if we really wanted good universal health care and brilliant public services, we'd be prepared to pay the 50% tax they have in Sweden. However, for reasons that are selfish, short-term thinking and not really using good analytical skills, some people won't. Much in the same way that the argument over the Euro seemed to consist of slightly hysterical racism ("don't want the hun controlling my economy") and a mis-placed sense of patriotism ("They're trying to get rid of the English!"), it doesn't mean that their arguments should be ignored as uncritical and unhelpfully reactionary as they are. Unless we're going to either admit a/some people just shouldn't be allowed any power so their betters can make decisions for them or b/opinions only count when they're

[ubermammal]

"Another problem is your idea of criticism and analysis skills - it assumes that everyone can have them or will want to have them if they can be gained. There will always be dissenters in pretty much everything, but even so, we then again come up against the wall of self-interest; if we really wanted good universal health care and brilliant public services, we'd be prepared to pay the 50% tax they have in Sweden. However, for reasons that are selfish, short-term thinking and not really using good analytical skills, some people won't."

Sure, some people want all the good stuff and don't want the cost - this is a cultural thing about entitlement, I think, and I actually reckon that socialism makes it worse. To develop your problem even further, there are also those of us who don't want good universal health care and brilliant public services - I'm one of them. I'd rather take the 50% income tax you'd have me pay, and spend it on good private health care and brilliant private services instead (who, in turn, pay their employees a wage

[xandratheblue]

I'd rather take the 50% income tax you'd have me pay, and spend it on good private health care and brilliant private services instead (who, in turn, pay their employees a wage that lets them get good private health care and brilliant private services, and so on

[ubermammal]

"You can argue that once we all start aiming to become rational, sensible and far-thinking people, as perhaps a new education system would teach us to be, such opinions would have far less sway, but then again, if we ignore the irrational, emotional and reactionary criticisms, we may just be giving prominence to a particular way of thinking which itself has flaws or does not account for those "not like us" (e.g. the missionaries in Africa genuinely thought they were doing the Africans a favour by 'civilising' them and destroying their non-Christian history, a thought that was very prevalent at the time amongst the rich, clever and rational western Victorians, without knowing the far-reaching effects of the civil wars later caused by forcing various tribes to live together and lack of knowledge of how STDs were transmitted