On 21 Nov 96 at 18:35, Dave Hayes wrote:
However, I would question the implication that "socialists" are responsible for the higher tax rates you currently experience.
For example, I could make a strong case that you really have some clever "capitalists" who have learned how to express their "capitalism" quite effectively across the space of all people in a "country".
OK. I am not on Cypherpunks anymore but this leftover of the mail queue landed in my mailbox. So, please, reply directly. I just couldn't let this one pass by me without jumping on it. :) Your second paragraph is attacking a straw man. You even included the word 'capitalist' in double quotes ("). The common point between socialists and theses so-called "capitalists" is that they both use that fact that some coercion is enacted on a given population to get rich an/or powerful. The socialists seek, as a value, power over producers and your "capitalists" seek to get rich and/or powerfull. But both blank out the cause of the obtention of their goals: legally exerted coercion (via govt rules and powers). To use terms coined by a well known writer, one is a Witch Doctor, the other is an Attila (morally sanctionned by the Witch Doctor). They natures are not opposite, they are simply both sides of the same coin. I sometimes wish peoples would use words for what they really mean... jfa Please reply or Cc. directly to me. Jean-Francois Avon, Pierrefonds (Montreal) QC Canada DePompadour, Societe d'Importation Ltee Finest Limoges porcelain and crystal JFA Technologies, R&D consultants physicists and engineers, LabView programing PGP keys at: http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon ID# C58ADD0D : 529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 ID# 5B51964D : 152ACCBCD4A481B0 254011193237822C