Sad But True
compiled by Jeffrey Trunzer from actual news reports
Bridgeport,
Connecticut, and the unified Miami-Dade County government in Florida recently
joined the growing ranks of local governments announcing they will sue
gun makers in an attempt to recover the costs of gun violence.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
Auto
makers beware! You'll soon be reimbursing cities for the costs of high
speed chases by cops, drive-by shootings, bent road signs, or any other
"misuse" of a car, because you didn't control the resale of used cars.
— editor
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sam
Perhaps
there is a loss of wealth in lending. But in a society lacking other
safeguards against homelessness for those down on the dough, to make shutting
the banks an absolute, neglects concern for human welfare. If one
accepts banking as a necessary, perhaps temporary evil, it is preferable
that the government do it, as an (at least for now) needed service, rather
than having private parasites use it to squeeze personal profit out of
the needs of others, perhaps, as you say, at a net loss to everyone.
Aristotle
defined form of government according to number of rulers: one — monarchy;
the few — oligarchy; the many — democracy. Plato defined form
of government according to which class ruled (implying economic system):
aristocracy — Plato used this term for his ideal State, ruled by intellectuals;
timocracy — military rule (fascism); oligarchy — rule by the merchants
& bankers (bourgeois, middle-class, plutocracy, capitalism);
democracy — rule by the working majority; tyranny — rule by a tyrant,
often a former demagogue under democracy, like Julius Caesar. Plato's
classifications seem to me more useful than Aristotle's & their "scientific"
predictive character is demonstrated by the fact that Caesar's (& Hitler's)
career could be predicted in the Republic. Dictatorship &
despotism imply tyranny only from the democratic point of view. The
ancients & Voltaire & communism believed in benevolent dictatorship
or enlightened despotism — e.g. Pericles, Trajan, Frederick the Great,
Lenin. The idea that representative democracy is not democracy but
oligarchy is an illusion, & a confusion of terms. The Athenians
had more plebiscites & referendums than the US does, but they did elect
politicians to manage the state on a daily basis. If the US is an
oligarchy, it's because the billionaire merchants control the government
behind the scenes. But I agree with your central idea that what is
important is the behavior of the government. We must struggle to
transform the government to serve rather than oppress people.
Sincerely,
— Elliot; N. Merrick, New York
Democracy exists when the masses make the political decisions.
Oligarchy exists when the privileged few do so. The oligarchs may
be elected in the USA, but they're oligarchs just the same.
— editor
Dear Editor,
I
must disagree with your Fantasy
Machine article regarding your First and Second laws of Economics.
The
First law example of the grocery store purchase explains that the inherent
(?) value of groceries in equivalent units (?) is less than the inherent
value of the money used to purchase the groceries.
In
fact, the purchaser of the groceries must value the groceries more than
the purchase money. Why else would purchaser buy the groceries?
And the seller of the groceries must value the purchase money more than
the groceries. Why else would the seller offer the groceries for
sale?
The
voluntary purchase of groceries (or any voluntary transaction) is a win-win
situation for both parties and each party exchanges something for more
value than he is giving up. Both parties have exchanged something
for higher value.
An
observer to the transaction may feel that the groceries are worth less
or more than the purchase money, but -- so what. A women paid thousands
of dollars for Elvis Presley's fingernail clippings. I may not agree
with her, but again, so what! There is no such thing as "value in
equivalent units."
All
voluntary transactions take place because each party exchanges something
for more value.
— Bob; Lee's Summit, Missouri
I
believe that it's possible to directly and accurately compare the value
of different commodities. The trick is to understand value objectively
instead of subjectively. That means we must distinguish between the
actual value of something and how desirable or useful it is to us.
In the car example, where I've used energy as analogous to value, there
is less energy in the speed of the car than there was in the gasoline.
The reason the driver accepts the loss of energy in the process is that
the smaller amount of energy in the speed is more useful to him than the
larger amount of energy in the gasoline. In your example, the value
of the fingernail
March 1999
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Frontiersman,
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