I went to the race yesterday. As I was trying to get to my seat, three classmates from Bridgewater yelled my last name from the bleachers. I forgot how good it sounded to get called by my last name. It reminded me of my younger days. I should have went up and talked to them. I am getting old.
Chevrolet ran well. I regained faith in Junior. It was a good day. The only bad thing was "Weasel Dick" Gordon finished second.
The Braves do not have any pitching, but they won today.
After riding back with three colleagues, I thought of this F.A. Hayek quote:
"There is perhaps nothing more disheartening than the fact that there are still so many intelligent and informed people who in most other respects will defend freedom and yet are induced by the immediate benefits of an expansionist policy to support what, in the long run, must destroy the foundations of a free society."
The Constitution of Liberty (339)
Honestly, I do not think two of the colleagues care about a free society. They have been infected with irrational populism and socialism. They would have been good NAZIs or Russian communists.
Life and production not death and taxes:
Death is the greatest sunk cost. Death should not concern intelligent people.
Man created taxes. He can destroy them.
Man created this imperfect society. He can correct it.
3 comments:
Jealous - wish I had been at the race. And - GO Jeffie!! :)
What has this free society done for me lately and what will it do for me in the near future?
The world does not revolve around money alone. I personally don't want to allow the direction of our system to simply follow currency exchange. You believe that the only way we a humans have to express ourselves is through consumption and saving. I disagree.
If you had it your way, we would all go stand in line at Barnes and Noble and exchange our bibles for the Wealth of Nations so that we could read every day about the birth of your leader, a commercial society. I'll pass on that.
If you want initiate progress or change, you cannot approach an issue by initially arguing the equillibrium/optimal solution from your perspective. You have to advocate the opposite perspective so that the end result is a compromise in the middle. Disagree with me if you want - theory won't tell you that this is how the system works. But it's reality if you like it or not. If you don't accept it, then you're simply a philospher. to initiate a change in views of others, you can't tell them how they should think, but only lead them (unknowingly to them) in the direction to see your side of the arguement.
Call me a populist if you want, but Im here to look out for the present, not for my great, great, great grandchildren. If I spend all of time planning for their future by trying to only raise the overall wealth of our world or my community, my culture/legacy/family values will all be washed down the tubes. What Im trying to say is when making these decisions regardign a capitalist system and commercialization, we need to look heavily at it's impact on society as a whole - not just from a wallet perspective. All consumers are not rational. If you disagree with me, just think of it this way. If you're at a bachelor party, and have some money you've saved(for either a car down payment, some shoes, who knows what) and a stripper catches you in the middle of a long dry spell and offers to only "show you the world" for $100, you'll pay it, even though you could get it for free if you waited longer. That's how consumers operate in a commercial society. We salivate for iPods - why - because we love them? Hell no. Because everyone else has them and now we can take what little money we have to buy one. Everybody is so concerned that someone else os going to get ahead of them. This is a big externality of capitalism.
Improving the welfare of society involves raising the level of well-being of the poorest person. How are we doing this by contiuously opening opportunities for them to spend irrationally?
Maybe we should start a course on Moral Economics.
And for the record, Im not a populist, Im an anarchist. I don't want any subsidies. I want a fair market so that I don't need any.
And for the record, china's growing. They supply us more and more each day. What are we going to do when they've booted us from the top rung of the world and begin indirectly managing our policies? Bet you won't be whistling dixie then - or yankee doodle dandy - whatever your nationality. Meanwhile I'll be waging custer's last stand.
I would try to respond. But I have to know what you are saying first.
"Go Jeffie!!:)" explains why I dislike Gordon.
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