From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Wed May 04 2005 - 17:19:27 BST
Hi Ant, Sam,
I've taken Ant's comments from a post to the Nuremberg thread, and
pasted them below my sig block. They provide a good example of what
I mean by state-supported capitalism. In addition to trade
restrictions, other examples include government bailouts of failed
banks, power companys, airlines and other businesses; tax codes that
permit write-offs for advertising and other business expenses; non-
competitive, often criminally lucrative government contracts to
favored contractors, especially weapons manufacturers and military
(and penal) support services; government subsidy of business research
and development through public universities; government reluctance
and refusal to aggressively prosecute labor-law violations. The list
is endless. So-called "capitalists" know very well that if the
government really did stop meddling in their affairs, their precious
"free-enterprise" system would self-destruct in a generation or two,
if not sooner.
Also, Gewirth's Principle of Generic Consistency is an excellent
formulation of the idea that fully-realized, fully-informed,
unrestricted human beings will freely choose to not exploit others,
which I proposed in my last post, here.
Thanks, Ant.
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
-- InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983 Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com ant: the MOQ – being a universal system - takes into account the freedom and interests of EVERY rational, autonomous end chooser in the world (as regards free economic markets) while in right-wing ideology, only the freedom and interests of certain minorities (sometimes only one’s self!) are taken into account. For instance, the markets that North Americans and Europeans bring into play are – in practice - protected trade areas and are only free markets in name. As Sam Popkin, professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego noted recently: “The greatest crime committed against Third World nations is barriers to trade, in particular agricultural subsidies in rich countries. It is a big issue for both the US and the EU. (quoted in the “Times Higher Education Supplement”, April 29th 2005, p.17, issue 1689) In the long run [rational people] will take this point on board and support the ideal of genuine, unfettered, free markets that take into account the freedom and interests of all rational, autonomous end choosers. As I noted before, in reference to Alan Gewirth and his 1978 text “Reason & Morality”, it is irrational not to. In this text, Gewirth introduces a moral principle (the Principle of Generic Consistency or “PGC”), according to which all agents have inalienable rights to the capacities and facilities they need in order to be able to act successfully i.e. “Agents must act in accord with the generic rights of others to (the values of) freedom & well-being as well as their own.” As I mentioned previously, his defense of this principle is that it is impossible to deny the principle without contradicting yourself (echoing Descartes’ idea that one cannot deny one’s existence because this very denial implies one’s existence). MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archives: Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
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