tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post8321853975421522560..comments2024-03-29T09:34:18.837+00:00Comments on Coppola Comment: GenerosityFrances Coppolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-84288861338434320922015-10-23T14:25:41.560+01:002015-10-23T14:25:41.560+01:00"I'm astounded that people of libertarian..."I'm astounded that people of libertarian persuasion can't see that this is creeping communism." <br /><br />It sounds like tyranno-capitalism to me. Tyranno-capitalism is an economic model that takes advantage of others. It is the most common economic model on our planet and it has done great harm to people everywhere. <br />hestalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360397201064435600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-12065188149163242162015-10-20T17:06:16.215+01:002015-10-20T17:06:16.215+01:00The above figure is the usury bill for 2013 paid I...The above figure is the usury bill for 2013 paid I would suggest to the money monopolists in London rather then the mythical "De Germans"<br /><br />Of course at least for 2013 the albeit more tectonic<br /> depreciation bill ( as a result of credit bank finance capitalism dumping was higher) is even higher.<br /><br />And you are asking people to be generous? <br />If they did show more then a ounce of Christian generosity I would think they would also find themselves on the street.<br /><br />The Dork of Corkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03352247603806622458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-37531956282539145672015-10-20T16:57:59.671+01:002015-10-20T16:57:59.671+01:00Francis
With regard to taxes.
The Banks control ...Francis <br />With regard to taxes. <br />The Banks control the state., the state is mechanism to excercise violence.<br /><br />You clearly represent and project London, Dublin Castle like dogma.<br /><br />Let's see <br />Looking at Irish national income accounts for 2013.....<br /><br />Less taxes - 19,019 million euro<br />+subsidies + 1,058 million euros. <br /><br />I would suggest the bulk of these payments is flowing to London rather then the mythical Germans..... The Dork of Corkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03352247603806622458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-29444589541337995292015-10-20T16:29:49.575+01:002015-10-20T16:29:49.575+01:00Sorry Christmas present not past.
Francis is not ...Sorry Christmas present not past.<br /><br />Francis is not engaging with reality on the ground.<br />We are not talking about Gdp, not Gnp but net national income.<br />If you reduce depreciation of capital goods to a minimum, eliminate usury and return a equity stake to each citizen then you will not run out of coal anytime soon.<br /><br />This famous forever Christmas pub requires coal to feed it's back boiler. <br />50 different homesteads in this pub requires 49 fewer boilers........... Add in 1 television ( in the most remote back corner) and a few electric lights and you realise Steve is talking complete bollox..... <br />The Dork of Corkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03352247603806622458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-54328547399375097422015-10-20T16:20:12.406+01:002015-10-20T16:20:12.406+01:00There is a famous pub in South Kerry where the (ma...There is a famous pub in South Kerry where the (mad) publican keeps the Christmas decorations (not lights) up 365 days a year.<br /><br />Less then 100 days to go or something.<br />Not a bad tactic.<br />You can believe in the ghost of Christmas past while also engaging in hoarding.<br /><br /><br />The ecosystem forces you to engage with it.<br />Problem is it is not a Jungle but a glass hothouse.<br />A artifical scarcity mechanism.<br /><br />Ps <br />Steves end of Industry with the end of waste meme is overly maltusian <br />He has all the sincere belief of a religious freak.<br />He is inherently puritan in outlook which = THE ULTUMATE PROTO CAPITALIST.<br /><br />The industrial surplus is massive and will remain so.<br />Get over it.<br /><br />The decline in euro energy intensity per person is a direct result of carbon taxes which is preventing a massive counter flow of coal back into Europe.<br />The Dork of Corkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03352247603806622458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-80986215699082427272015-10-20T10:47:01.431+01:002015-10-20T10:47:01.431+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.hestalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360397201064435600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-91896483387770840952015-10-20T10:47:00.998+01:002015-10-20T10:47:00.998+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.hestalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360397201064435600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-29203530920784662542015-10-20T10:37:14.912+01:002015-10-20T10:37:14.912+01:00The post and the comments reveal the nature of hum...The post and the comments reveal the nature of human nature, including the human nature of the authors of these writings. We humans are all products of evolution by natural selection, and it has produced two living varieties of our species: tyranni, who are aggressive and selfish, and democrati, who are timid and altruistic. Democrati naturally work for the common good. Tyranni naturally work against it.<br /><br />The cycle of human history is a function of the Darwinian struggle between these two varieties of Homo sapiens. When tyranni naturally, aggressively push forward to take power, democrati naturally, timidly step back to let them pass. Tyranni naturally use that power to indulge their selfish urges. Innocents (democrati and tyranni alike) suffer and die unnecessarily. A great commotion occurs. Tyranno-outs seize power from tyranni-ins and the cycle renews. <br /><br />All of human history follows this cycle. The characteristics of tyranni have been described by many observers, and evolutionary science is beginning to uncover the genetic basis for the two varieties of our species. In fact tyranni are mentioned in the APA's diagnostic manual: antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. <br /><br />In America our major institutions have been designed to give power to tyranni and they work as designed. This is the reason that America is not a democracy, but is an oligarchy. Our population is slowly beginning to wake up to this fact.<br /><br />One the most egregious example of the selfish behavior of tyranni is Exxon's realization more than twenty years ago that burning fossil fuels could warm our world to dangerous levels, but rather than take action to prevent this disaster, the tyranni who controlled this giant corporation decided to participate in an industry-wide campaign of disinformation. They could ultimately be responsible for the destruction of civilization. <br /><br />In America the political landscape is filled with tyranni. State legislatures are horrifying examples of selfish, aggressive behavior. Our state of Kansas in controlled by a tyranno-governor and a tyranno-legislature. They have gleefully enacted punishing austerity on state and local governments until they are eating out the substance of the people. Before the Civil War, Kansas became known as "bloody" Kansas because of the battles between slavers and abolitionists. Now it is "dying" Kansas.<br /><br />I tried to read some of Ayn Rand's work in 1957, but I just couldn't take it. It was crazy and very boring. But, later I came to realize that she and her hero are were tyranni: aggressive, selfish people who naturally work against the common good. It is in them, it is in their very souls, it is natural. Tyranni and democrati are products of human nature. Unless we stop them tyranni will destroy us. So far, we have been able to stave off our destruction:<br /><br />(the following is from my book: faction-free democracy)<br /><br />But because Nature has been so bountiful, because democrati greatly outnumber tyranni, and because humans are so resilient and so creative, this brutal process could not stop progress—very costly progress, often needlessly tragic and unevenly distributed, but progress nevertheless—of that there is no doubt. However, we are now dangerously near the end. Nature’s bounty is nearly exhausted. She can no longer heal our self-inflicted wounds, she cannot replenish what we take from her—she cannot forgive our greed. <br /><br />Without the assistance of Nature, we humans are finally on our own. Our millennia of adolescence are over. It is time to grow up. We can no longer afford to indulge our selfish urges—we cannot afford to just do what comes naturally: act reflexively, act without thinking, play political games instead of doing the hard work of facing and solving the immense problems we have created for ourselves. If we continue to follow the instinctive natures given to us by evolution by natural selection we will go the way of countless other species—we will decline, even become extinct—and it will be sooner rather than later. <br /><br />hestalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360397201064435600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-45199876280298756302014-01-03T10:16:08.222+00:002014-01-03T10:16:08.222+00:00Matt Bruenig has already nailed this argument: ht...Matt Bruenig has already nailed this argument: http://mattbruenig.com/2013/10/03/non-aggression-never-does-any-argumentative-work-at-any-time/<br /><br />gastro georgeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-41809278290866473452014-01-03T04:39:30.953+00:002014-01-03T04:39:30.953+00:00For those who complain that Frances does not under...For those who complain that Frances does not understand Rand, I think she understands her only too well, and sees her limitations. This article http://michaelprescott.net/romancing-the-stone-cold.html about her infatuation with a brutal murderer, shows the psychological flaws that underly both her personality and work.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15694610907708913792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-5618203995453106872014-01-01T17:37:17.480+00:002014-01-01T17:37:17.480+00:00On the contrary, legality has everything to do wit...On the contrary, legality has everything to do with it. <br /><br />Tax evasion is a crime. You seem to want to have the right to decide which laws should apply to you and which should not. I doubt very much if you object to armed police being used to apprehend a thief who has stolen your property, do you? In fact I suspect you think YOU have the right to use force to defend your property - which in the UK is questionable. But you want to have the right to break the laws that say you must pay the taxes as determined by the government, and you object to the use of armed police to apprehend you if you use violence to resist paying those taxes. <br /><br />To have the right to live in a country, you have to agree to abide by its laws - all of them. You may think those laws do not apply to you, in which case your legal recourse is to prove, through the same legal system, that they do not. If they do apply to you, but you think they are immoral, your only legitimate recourse is to get the law changed - and under ANY system of government (not just democracy), that involves persuading other people to agree that the law is wrong and should be changed. You may of course alternatively choose to leave the country. But at no point do you have the right arbitrarily to decide that a law does not apply to you. Frances Coppolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-48489535280100394872014-01-01T16:06:44.204+00:002014-01-01T16:06:44.204+00:00Try NOT paying your taxes and see how long it take...Try NOT paying your taxes and see how long it takes for someone for someone to physically arrive at your residence and violently remove you. It WILL happen. And if you use violence to resist their violence armed police WILL be involved, yes even in the UK (where I live too by the way). Just because there isn't a gun on show when your tax return arrives doesn't mean there isn't effectively one under the table.<br /><br />Of course its all 'legal'. The State wants your taxes and its made demanding them under the threat of imprisonment legal. If I did the same thing to you (demanded money and then kidnapped you and imprisoned you if you refused) I'd be arrested for any one of many of crimes. <br /><br />Legality has nothing to do with it. Jimnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-9690255034993427302013-12-30T17:16:23.883+00:002013-12-30T17:16:23.883+00:00We should not forget that a fair number of people ...We should not forget that a fair number of people are just not very good at "making" prosperity and they will never be prosperous (relatively) in a system where they need something to exchange to take part. The only way they can get some is charity.<br /><br />Pretending otherwise can be toxic, because it allows the people who are good at it to think they can exempt themselves from sharing and still be good people: if you think the poor are poor because macro policy X or Y is wrong, you can become good by just proclaiming support for policies "not X" and "not Y", which is cheap compared to just giving some of your booty to the indigent, who are just too thick/disabled/unlucky to ever get a good deal under any combination of macro policies.cighttp://commentisglee.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-73158484144951502272013-12-30T12:01:45.305+00:002013-12-30T12:01:45.305+00:00Jim,
The enforcers of tax laws are not entitled t...Jim,<br /><br />The enforcers of tax laws are not entitled to break other laws. I live in a country where even possession of a gun without a licence is illegal, and using one against another human being is ALWAYS illegal even if you have a licence. So even if I don't pay, no-one is going to shove a gun in my back. They will use the legal system to obtain payment from me. That is of course the same legal system that I use to protect my property from people who want to take it from me illegally. Taxation may in your view be immoral, but it is not illegal. Frances Coppolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-70204810273768866722013-12-30T11:09:20.429+00:002013-12-30T11:09:20.429+00:00Rubbish Jim. People don't 'force' peop...Rubbish Jim. People don't 'force' people to be co-operative and social, nothing does other than the simple fact that people who are co-operative and social tend to survive longer in harsh environments. Morality and righteousness are figments of your imagination. Empathy is important because it serves a purpose. Character traits of strong leaders border on the psychopathic because they need the traits of risk-taking, quick decision making and self-reinforcement. But the good ones overcome the inherent lack of empathy because it conflicts with the logic stated above. If you believe the answer is to eject from society the majority of people who do not contribute 'enough' then you are missing the point of society entirely.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-44575047811712527782013-12-30T01:41:11.493+00:002013-12-30T01:41:11.493+00:00@Frances
Of course, when you do pay, there is no n...@Frances<br />Of course, when you do pay, there is no need to show any gun :)<br />When you don't...JNhttp://spontaneousfinance.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-21635360613779368292013-12-30T00:09:10.768+00:002013-12-30T00:09:10.768+00:00Amazing. Do you know, I've been paying taxes f...Amazing. Do you know, I've been paying taxes for over thirty years and no-one has ever stuck a gun in my back. <br /><br />Frances Coppolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-17229830505806659672013-12-29T23:12:59.155+00:002013-12-29T23:12:59.155+00:00Rubbish. Tim Berners Lee created the internet and ...Rubbish. Tim Berners Lee created the internet and gave it away for free, voluntarily. The key being voluntarily. No-one stuck a gun in his back and said 'Right Tim old chap, we want X% of what you've just created by the power of your own hand and mind, or else' which is effectively what taxation is.<br /><br />Of course humans are naturally co-operative and social, its how we've existed for millennia. But crucially without anyone forcing us to be co-operative and social. Once you try to enforce morality at the barrel of a gun, the actions you demand lose any moral righteousness they previously had.Jimnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-85300377073452641942013-12-29T17:15:11.021+00:002013-12-29T17:15:11.021+00:00Tim Berners Lee is indeed the only answer you need...Tim Berners Lee is indeed the only answer you need for Galtists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-58916661212244147602013-12-28T22:47:36.114+00:002013-12-28T22:47:36.114+00:00What a wonderful article especially at this time o...What a wonderful article especially at this time of year. I'm afraid I despise the Rand crowd and have never managed to read the damned car crash of a book all the way through it. The neo liberals are busy rewriting history in denial of the fact that man is a co-operative and social animal. Even when waging wars armies co-operate with each other and look after the wounded, this is the true natural way. I hope as civilisation progresses wars will become a thing of the past, though I doubt it. <br /><br />The people with the power control the message which is why we get propaganda thrust down our throats daily and a slew of adverts that there is no escape from. Look at the medium we are communicating on now it was gifted to us by someone else's brilliant mind. Tim Berners Lee should be the richest man in the world and he quite probably thinks he is, just not in money terms. <br /><br />Greed and selfishness have no place in the world and economics is about people, it therefore must have a moral dimension. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-89959975443298106912013-12-28T00:16:12.635+00:002013-12-28T00:16:12.635+00:00"My survival depends on my ability to use my ..."My survival depends on my ability to use my mind to produce the things I need to survive"<br /><br />Good luck with that homebrew brain tumour surgery, old chap.<br /><br />Unless you consider yourself to be God (always an possibility in a Randian's weltanschaung, I admit) your finite lifespan and the ever expanding realm of human understanding means it is impossible to learn fast enough to be prepared for every threat to your survival. Therefore (quite apart from the Adam Smith insight that it's better for people to specialise than try and do everything), at some point you are going to be reliant on someone else's labours *or education* for your survival, at which point all the time spent on the internet ordering people to read books they've read matters not if they won't share with you.<br /><br />From that, obviously, societies that cooperate and share to reduce risks to their survival are going to beat societies organised on Randian lines ten times out of ten, along with societies that provide institutional frameworks that permit their inhabitants to evolve, innovate, adapt, enforce property rights, assure trust and so on, or, as we usually call them, western liberal democracies. It is precisely the recognition of the imperfectability of humankind that lead to that sort of society - we'd seen the alternative.<br /><br />Since in that model of society there's generally a high value attached to markets and competition as a way of allocating value, the only way your superman would be able to assure that his ideas prevailed would be through authoritarian suppression of competition, which is fine if you assume he knows 100% what he's doing, but that fails in the real world because he's human. Which brings us back to Frances's original point: by what mechanism, absent free market competition and consumer choice, do we know Galt's ideas are genuinely impossible to better? The cemetery's full of indispensable cobblers.<br /><br />I'd go further and point out that there are plenty of alternative ideologies that assume that one entity's actions are impossible to better, and they're called fundamentalist religions. Why not just go follow one of those instead of wasting your time advocating very bad economics?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13528153700227522801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-60642196641355311882013-12-27T22:31:27.823+00:002013-12-27T22:31:27.823+00:00No, you didn't put it like that, but it is imp...No, you didn't put it like that, but it is implied in what you said. You can't eat ideas. Somehow, you have to find someone who values your ideas - the product of your mind - enough to want to trade with you. They might need to like you, too. Otherwise, in a completely free market you WILL starve, however many ideas you come up with. Ayn Rand implicitly assumes that there is always a market for the ideas of a brilliant mind. That is a very big assumption.<br /><br />I would add that telling me I don't understand is usually what people do when they've lost the argument. Frances Coppolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-50922908347046089092013-12-27T22:07:39.412+00:002013-12-27T22:07:39.412+00:00"It is a total fallacy to imagine that if you..."It is a total fallacy to imagine that if you produce something, others will necessarily want to buy it at your price, or indeed at any price." I didn't say that. In any event, you don't understand Rand. Nice talking to you :)Randgalthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11818098253921275018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-69536355887449094292013-12-27T21:56:04.604+00:002013-12-27T21:56:04.604+00:00Er no, you have the economic theory of value the w...Er no, you have the economic theory of value the wrong way round. The value you place on your production is of no consequence. "Someone" will only buy your production if it is of value TO HIM. If no one wants to buy your production, your mind alone cannot ensure your survival. Whether you like it or not, unless you wish to scavenge on common land, your survival depends fundamentally on your ability to produce something that others value enough to want to pay the price you need to achieve for it. It is a total fallacy to imagine that if you produce something, others will necessarily want to buy it at your price, or indeed at any price.Frances Coppolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09399390283774592713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8764541874043694159.post-60702756917250328592013-12-27T20:58:38.417+00:002013-12-27T20:58:38.417+00:00"your survival depends on the value I place o..."your survival depends on the value I place on your production". That's false. My survival depends on my ability to use my mind to produce the things I need to survive. In the basic case, I could live by subsisting. In modern society, we trade value for value. i.e. someone trades me something I value in exchange for something he values.Randgalthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11818098253921275018noreply@blogger.com