Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site ea.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ea!mwm From: mwm@ea.UUCP Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: Were not drifting; were being tugged - (nf) Message-ID: <9800021@ea.UUCP> Date: Sun, 5-Aug-84 18:52:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ea.9800021 Posted: Sun Aug 5 18:52:00 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Aug-84 00:58:27 EDT References: <366@hogpd.UUCP> Lines: 57 Nf-ID: #R:hogpd:-36600:ea:9800021:000:3057 Nf-From: ea!mwm Aug 5 17:52:00 1984 #R:hogpd:-36600:ea:9800021:000:3057 ea!mwm Aug 5 17:52:00 1984 > /***** ea:net.philosophy / ism780b!jim / 11:46 pm Aug 2, 1984 */ > > I like people who like to give to other people too. I also like to give > > things to other people. What I don't like are people who *make* me give > > things to other people. > > What about the people who make you make you pay for the invasion of Grenada, > the attempted assassination of Castro, the overthrow of Allende, the > Australian coup, support for the overthrow of Nicaragua, more money for > military marching bands than goes to the rest of the nation's musicians, > vastly inflated prices for nuts, bolts, tanks, and all other forms of military > hardware, military aid to the El Salvadoran, Guatamalan, and Honduran > generals, 30000 nuclear warheads, 17000 more scheduled in the next 5 years, > MX missiles, cruise missiles, Pershing missiles, B-1 bombers, M-1 tanks, etc.? Yup, I don't like being made to pay for any of that, either. Do you? Some of it I would be willing to pay to support, but I don't like being told that I *have* to pay. It's like giving things to people - it's something I'd do if left to myself, but I *still* don't like being forced to do so. > What about the people who make you pay for massive advertising campaigns > for products you don't want or need, for their lobbying and wining and > dining and bribing of politicians or buying of politicians through massive > campaign contributions, all to allow them to continue to pollute your > environment and to pass laws that protect them from their precious > free-market competition? There is a tax for these things in everything you > buy. The fact that it doesn't say "tax" and "government" all over it doesn't > mean it isn't there. Not nearly so bad - I have the option to not buy things. This is *far* preferable to the government holding a gun to my head and taking things from me. If I like a companies products *and don't own the company*, then all I can really do to see that they survive is buy their product. I assume that their management is trying to achieve the same end, and their massive advertizing campaigns are good for the company. Of course, in buying their products, I also support unions lobbying to get laws passed to support there precious seniority system, to continue to place more value on years worked than actual ability, etc. There's a tax for these things in everything I buy - but once again, I have an option. Nobody makes me buy things at union-inflated prices. > You think you have worked hard for what you have, but your attitude is like > the programmer who slaves to find the optimal intruction sequence for the > inner loop of his bubble sort. You just have no concept of the costs inherent > in the way the system is currently structured. You think you've done a careful analysis of the problem, but your attitude is like the programmer who implements a quicksort to find the largest element in the list - you're solving the wrong problem. You just have no concept of how the system is currently structured. > -- Jim Balter (ima!jim)