From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Jul 31 2005 - 17:46:05 BST
Hi Arlo,
I have a sense of deja vu all over again since our respective views on
"life-saving services" were amply expressed in discussions I had with msh
on the subject.
My views all boiled down to, as Ian put it, the "vagueness" of the term
life-saving. Once you open a can of worms that says it's the obligation of
government (meaning the taxpayers) to provide such services, socialism in
all its DQ-smothering glory is bound to follow. After all, food, shelter,
clothing, transportation, etc. could all be considered "life-saving," and
have been by many liberals in the past to justify their transferring
wealth from the producers to the moochers, turning the safety net into a
hammock.
.
To take what Pirsig said about a single, solitary, individual convict
facing execution and using it as the basis for justifying a total
government welfare program is quite a stretch.The former puts a brake on
social action, the latter opens the floodgates.
Finally, you agree that in an MOQ society that people would vote for life
saving services and I've conceded that if they did, that would be fine
with me. We've already agreed that an MOQ society would be democratic
while protecting individual rights. But I don't think one of my rights is
to put a gun to my neighbor's head to force him to pay for my pacemaker.
(We have agreed that government has a monopoly on legalized violence
haven't we?)
So, unless you want to go around again on this subject, our positions seem
reasonably clear. That we disagree on some aspects is OK because as Sam
reminds us, either one or both of us might be wrong. :-)
Platt
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