Tweet
So I and a Randian freind were discussing politics a bit. He really hates wealth transfer (obviously).
His view of an idea government consisted of:
Police (to enforce contracts)
Military (to defend aganst outside elements)
Court (just to deal with contracts)
I think that that plainly won't work. I mean, the US was more capitalist once, and our social security and other such things are a result of it not working during the Great Depression. The options were either the government did something about it (wealth transfer) or there would be a revolt (Sometimes I think if we had had a revolt, that we would be in a better state now (more socialist)).
Now I suggested a slight modification of his... the issues are of course that people are forced into slavery for food (especially) and don't have the capital necessary for employment and so must sell themselves to others.
But we live in the information age, very little capital is needed now. Basically just a compute rand a net connection and you can find emplyoment, and you can learn over the computer as well.
So add a 4th thing that the govenment provides: Internet Cafes. These would be free for anyone (not just the poor) to use. The idea is than if someone has no capital to get employment.. they can use the internet to gain intellectual capital and the computer/internet would provide them the tools necessary to market that capital and use it for profit. Soup would also be provided. (My Randian freind also said that people over the age of 20 couldn't stay longer than 4 hours per day)
The network of Cafes and the like would serve as sort of the backbone of the public internet.
So I know this is no longer libertarian. And it probably still has holes. But it does sort of remove the wealth transfer issue that some seem to have so many problems with.
There is also the issue of corporations not being forward thinking enoguh. That is why they try to pollute a lot, etc. There is also the issue of corruption still, do to who gives the military contracts (and police, and Cafes, and courts).
Anyways, I like discussing and thinking about Utopias, what do others think?
Jon Miller
His view of an idea government consisted of:
Police (to enforce contracts)
Military (to defend aganst outside elements)
Court (just to deal with contracts)
I think that that plainly won't work. I mean, the US was more capitalist once, and our social security and other such things are a result of it not working during the Great Depression. The options were either the government did something about it (wealth transfer) or there would be a revolt (Sometimes I think if we had had a revolt, that we would be in a better state now (more socialist)).
Now I suggested a slight modification of his... the issues are of course that people are forced into slavery for food (especially) and don't have the capital necessary for employment and so must sell themselves to others.
But we live in the information age, very little capital is needed now. Basically just a compute rand a net connection and you can find emplyoment, and you can learn over the computer as well.
So add a 4th thing that the govenment provides: Internet Cafes. These would be free for anyone (not just the poor) to use. The idea is than if someone has no capital to get employment.. they can use the internet to gain intellectual capital and the computer/internet would provide them the tools necessary to market that capital and use it for profit. Soup would also be provided. (My Randian freind also said that people over the age of 20 couldn't stay longer than 4 hours per day)
The network of Cafes and the like would serve as sort of the backbone of the public internet.
So I know this is no longer libertarian. And it probably still has holes. But it does sort of remove the wealth transfer issue that some seem to have so many problems with.
There is also the issue of corporations not being forward thinking enoguh. That is why they try to pollute a lot, etc. There is also the issue of corruption still, do to who gives the military contracts (and police, and Cafes, and courts).
Anyways, I like discussing and thinking about Utopias, what do others think?
Jon Miller
Comment