tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post2155794431182905205..comments2024-03-29T01:07:30.224-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Will Bureaucrats Save You From Predatory Capitalists?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-1926286073606904152015-10-23T13:12:23.993-07:002015-10-23T13:12:23.993-07:00Well, we know that capitalists will not save us fr...Well, we know that capitalists will not save us from predatory bureaucrats.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-9149301333558737432015-10-22T14:54:37.001-07:002015-10-22T14:54:37.001-07:00More denial. The human capacity for evil is legion...More denial. The human capacity for evil is legion. It's not limited to a specific sector of our economy. And this just in: government is a competitor for power and resources in our modern society. The collective hand washing that goes on with the demonization of the for-profit sector -- private enterprise -- is nothing short of hilarious, as it is so preposterous. This kind of denial and lunacy are the reason we have hipsters. Hipsters exist because everyone told them they were special. The term "Millenial" makes me nauseous.Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-14590386775185441862015-10-22T08:15:13.334-07:002015-10-22T08:15:13.334-07:00Oh, these debates do get a bit tiring. Which is be...Oh, these debates do get a bit tiring. Which is best a free-market or regulated-market? It must be 100% one or 100% the other, right? Or maybe there's some middle ground?<br /><br />Okay, in one corner we have Lady Liberty and the old quote goes "My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins."<br />http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/15/liberty-fist-nose/<br /><br />And in the other corner we have oppression, with C.S. Lewis calling out do-gooders:<br />“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”<br /><br />Then we can see Stuart proposes "Good manners" as the glue that holds community together, enforced not by law or regulation but by a traditional shame-honor society, which apparently doesn't work well with multiculturalism where there are no elders respected by all who get to set the standards. So we're left with "free market" manners that leave us all confused and violated by the lowest common denominator, where political correctness tried to raise the bar, only to be shot down as someone else's bad ideas that I resent.<br /><br />And if we go back to the world of money, we can look at the failed prohibition as an example of "do-gooders" forcing their morality down our throat, while economists solved by that by a hefty tax, so the tax is larger than the costs of production. And we outlaw driving under the influence with high costs to getting caught.<br /><br />Another ultra-predatory business is "payday loans", where you can pay 400-500% effective annual interest rate, which might be no big deal if its just a one time thing, for people too poor to have a credit card to cover shortfalls, but of course most of the time ends up being rolled over and with new fees added for many months so an original $500 loan might end up costing many thousands of dollars. <br /><br />So perhaps there is a learning curve and poor people only get tricked once, and after getting exploited once and digging themselves out, they never go back, OR they use more self-discipline, and all is well.<br /><br />Or even better, perhaps poor people "learn their lesson" and stop paying their promised debt. Oh, wait, that's what political campaigns and failed business leaders do. Poor people are unfortunately too proud to refuse to pay their debts. Or will you go to jail? Probably not, but they'll threaten it.<br />http://www.paydayloner.com/gotojail.html<br /><br />And that show part of the problem - the bureaucrats might not be there to protect you from the capitalists, but are there to enforce the will of the capitalists.<br /><br />And that reminds me of a recent speech I read, given by "Progressive" candidate Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Roosevelt saw the threat of corporations to make law in their image, unless a government by the people was strong enough to resist.<br />http://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/1912/1912documents/LimitationofGovernment<br />------------<br />There once was a time in history when the limitation of governmental power meant increasing liberty for the people. In the present day the limitation of governmental power, of governmental action, means the enslavement of the people by the great corporations, who can only be held in check through the extension of governmental power.<br />------------<br /><br />And when we recently had billionaire Tom Perkins wishing that elections would be not by "one person, one vote", but "one dollar, one vote".<br /><br />Will multinational corporations really rule the future? I guess if they do, we'll deserve it for failing to defend our collective sovereignty. After that we can worry more about the do-gooders.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com