Comments on: Update II: Marx Was Partly Right By Tibor Machan

By: Szasz

Szasz — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Incompetence & Termites? ! ?

When it comes to “abolishing” the right(S) to private property,
One must necessarily wonder where it could possibly, conceivably “Terminate”; i.e.: (end) …

The right to private property must necessarily extend to and include one’s own
person. ( i.e.: Your own personal “self.” )

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THAT SHOULD BE
(ABSENT ANY ACTION AGAINST OTHER HUMANS) IN ANY WAY “CONSTRICTED” OR “CONTROLLED ?

I don’t think so… Not in my lifetime. Not in my Fathers; nor his.
It’s not in my heritage.
(I AM AN AMERICAN.) Therefor:

NOT ON THIS PLANET.

Szasz

[Guys, please write in normal sentences rather than in columns, or capitals, or else I have to try editing so that readers can get the flow.–IM]

By: Steve Stip

Steve Stip — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:27:41 +0000

Myron,
It almost seems like a conspiracy.
1) Allow Muslims to immigrate to the US
2) Piss Muslims off via wars in Muslim countries.
3) Justify a police state because of 1) and 2).

Actually, it is probably just the insane logic of stupid politicians. May it further discredit the neo-cons.

We seem to be having a perfect storm of incompetence.

By: Andrew T.

Andrew T. — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:51:18 +0000

I tend to agree with Myron Pauli. In most cases, big business is not an ally to freedom, and the favors and special treatment they expect from government is as dangerous, if not more so, than the handouts that common people expect.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:02:26 +0000

I never said that business did not create efficiencies and hence wealth – just that the companies (and I own stock in some) that benefit from Bush’s Prescription Drug Benefit have their bottom line ahead of some libertarian notion of “freedom”. The banks want the Fed to print money at a low rate and then lend it at a high rate. Disney wants its copyrights to go on for a million years. Auto dealers want their monopolies protected by law….

I also notice that some of the largest companies in the world are now Chinese and Russian (just checked it out). I would not be suprised that most of these businssmen prefer a regulated climate that guarantees profit and suppresses competition over the uncertainties of an unregulated FREE market place. China and Russia are good examples of authoritarian market places and the US is somewhere between 40% – 60% regulated/controlled as well. Nice to have our phone companies spying on us! Looks like we can have a degree of prosperity AND a degree of repression – a gilded cage of sorts.

By: Steve Stip

Steve Stip — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:10:24 +0000

I see big government as a spiked club. If one does not pick it up himself, he is in danger of someone else picking it up and using it on him.

The solution is to reduce government power to its proper functions. That way, the honest businessman need not fear it and the dishonest businessman would have nothing to gain from it.

By: Wladimir Kraus

Wladimir Kraus — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:57:05 +0000

Mr. Pauli’s comment about business and businessmen displays the for (left)libertarians all too typical incomprehension of the essence of business. In his assessment of the “moral” character of the businessmen, he conveniently fails to cite the facts that it’s business, particularly BIG business, which is the source of virtually all material wealth in our societies. While the rottenness of some businessmen is not inherent in them, as it isn’t inherent in any other group or profession, the essence of productivity and rationality, which are the essential prerequisites to produce a chair, not to speak to build and organize a major industry, IS! For evidence, see the wealth around you! Or, what do you think all that comes from?

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:17:46 +0000

As long as we are praising Marx, I would also speak in favor of Lenin’s observation that the last capitalist would sell the rope to hang the next-to-last capitalist. Unlike St. Ayn Rand and other “rightist” libertarians who see businessmen as inherent heroes of freedom, the businessmen are in it for money – as they should be. Hence, your typical Rockefeller has no problem doing business with Hu Jintao, Vlad Putin, George Bush, or any other corrupt authoritarian. What Ron Paul calls “soft fascism” is perfectly in harmony with business. In fact, the stockholders of Archer Daniels Midland should be passionately following their (un)enlightened self-interest and support Barack Obama and his Cornographic Ethanol Mandates. After all, why have competition and risk when you can steal a good profit with a well-placed bribe or kickback? This doesn’t make Nader or Marx libertarians, of course, but their warnings should not be tossed aside lightly.

By: Tibor Machan

Tibor Machan — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:36:16 +0000

People aren’t always at their best, politically or otherwise, so their impatience can render them economically and otherwise dense. Marx may have overstated this point but given how often folks want to eat their cake and also have it handy for later consumption, they do foster bad policies and reject good ones. It may never happen that they are at their best for a long enough stretch to straighten out the system for the long haul.

By: Steve Stip

Steve Stip — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:20:35 +0000

“But Marx did have it right that in their impatience and frustration with the free market, people will attempt the impossible.”

I don’t buy that people get tired of free markets. They get tired of the results of rigged markets. Then they decide they want what was stolen from them and they will use government in desperation to get it back.

I am speaking, as usual, about the government backed banking cartels in the US and other countries. How can one talk about free markets under these circumstances?