Greg Brooks (gregguy@aol.com) writes:

Frode Odegard (frode@toaster.sfsu.edu) writes:

...

So you are saying that acting in one's own rational self-interest is compatible with acting upon somone else by force?

(Yes, in case of protection of one's life or, in some cases, one's property. I didn't say the government was acting rationally in everything (or indeed, most things) they do; only that force is a natural response to being threatened. That we perceive the government as the real threat has little bearing on their actions, I suspect.)

Um, I was referring to _initiation_ of force. When the government taxes you that is initiation of force. When you fire a gun at a robber (or an IRS agent attempting to steal your assets) that is self-defense. But what is the philosophical premise behind government as it now stands? I believe it is altruism - the ethics that tells man that action in his own rational self-interest is immoral ("selfish") and that only self- sacrifice, acting _against_ one's own interest for the benefit of the people, one's neighbors, the state, or some random homeless person, is morally good. The ethical bases of laissez-fare capitalism is rational egoism, not altruism. According to altruism, productivity for one's own benefit is a vice, suffering is a virtue. This is why the "free market" isn't free - it is ethically incompatible with the philosophical basis of our so-called leaders (and many, many citizens.) As long as we do not reject the moral code of altruism we will move steadily towards fascism - the parallels between the Weimar developments and those here in the United States are rather astonishing - I'll be happy to elaborate on them if there is interest. - Frode