The Recent Trend in "Collective Contracts"

[Tim May]

At 11:20 PM -0700 7/10/97, Bill Frantz wrote:
>At 9:29 AM -0700 7/10/97, Tim May wrote:
>>(Caveat: My personal and libertarian view is that lawsuits against
>>cigarette companies are wrong and should not be supported in a free
>>society. And lawsuits by various states to "recover health care costs" are
>>especially bogus. By this logic, McDonald's could be sued by California
>>because California paid out more health care benefits to meat-eaters than
>>it did to vegetarians. Utterly bogus.)
>
>It is especially bogus since it is not clear that the government isn't a
>net winner between reduced social security and pension payments, and the
>extra income from tobacco taxes.

And of course the government has been subsidizing tobacco growing for the
last half century (at least).

Even non-libertarians see the absurdity in all this.

(But these same friends and family will cheerfully admit that "there ought
to be a law" banning tobacco. Especially some of those who smoke...they
want the government to pass a law, wave a magic wand, and cure their
smoking habit.)

The only consistent, reasonable, just solution is basically the libertarian
one (note that I am not using the word Libertarian). Namely:

Individual responsibility, free choice, a drastically reduced set of laws,
and end to all subsidies of any and all products, reduced tariffs, and an
end to social engineering through tax and tariff policies and
incentives/disincentives to businesses.


There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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