I am too, tbh. But then I do see potential benefits from state intervention. It’s all a matter of how the game is played. But yeah, I can imagine worse situations. I can imagine better ones too.
Yeah but neither of you would stick a gun in someones belly to collect the tax that would be needed to fund your externality correcting or socialist-lite state.
To the OP:
Why do children believe in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy? They were lied to and confronting the lie is painfull. So painful in fact, that most people will do almost anything to avoid the topic.
If I worked for the IRS, I’d do what I had to do. But that’s really not what happens most of the time anyways. Most people just pay their taxes, no one explicitly points the gun at them. The gun is implied for the most part.
In other words, if you don’t pay your taxes, people don’t come to your door with a gun. They keep sending the bill. If you continue in non compliance they might take legal action to garner wages or place a lien on assets etc. The gun comes later if you still avoid paying in the form of police taking you to jail for tax evasion. But that’s a last ditch sort of thing. The gun, as I said before, is implied.
I was mostly just repeating a meme. Nothing serious.
It matters not because the gun is still there.
I can spend all day on the internets saying that I support rape and that it is a wonderful thing, but when it comes down to it I would never be able to do it. Therefore, I am not a rapist.
You are not a violent person. You don’t go around pointing guns at people. Therefore, you are not a statist.
Hmm on this forum, that’s a compliment. What am I then, in your mind?
I think you are probably very similar to most of us here: A good dude with strong opinions and an above average intelligence.
MatthewF, you clearly understand an almost universal rule of interpersonal relations: flattery will get you everywhere. lol. [:D]
So do you think of yourself that way?
I think of myself as an observer and a speculator. I’ve already played my hand in this whole thing with my investments and my votes, now I just sit back and see how things play out and I discuss my views of things with people who are willing to discuss them.
I’m always aware of the fact that all things have a cost and ultimately some people just end up valuing some things much more than others. My values are just slightly different than some of the people on this forum. That’s really the size of it imo.
Indeed. Would you say that your values were closer to the average member of this forum or the average person in general?
Me third.
The topic has been diverted to the state. Those of you here who so feared socialism and the state…I seriously question your true knowlege.
I lived under communism for 16 years.
The level of statism and rule of law in the US are so insignifcant to me that everyday I wake up…I know I am a free man.
I buy whatever I want, whenever I want it, work for whomever I want, study what I want, travel wherever I want.
“I value freedom because I was a slave”.
Hardly can one talk about slavery if you have not been one.
You are too dramatic.
Whether it is taxes or laws or anything…if you dont comply you pay.
Take a vacation to Cuba or North Korea.
I don’t know about the “average person” tbh.
How does this address the point of a supporting a state by way of violence?
What are the other options?
I think I’m probably going to be in the minority in this topic here when I say this but back a long time ago when I was just reading this website and I was just learning the basics of economics and looked at a lot of the stuff here about free-enterprise I never assumed AE was one whole branch. I just assumed that a lot of people who took hard-lined libertarian stances really disagreed with each other and had different interpretations for different things.
I guess looking back at it, I see that AE allows for many interpretations about economic phenomenon, and in its purest form- it doesn’t accept dogma. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s not accepted as much. People just want to be told simple solutions because they think that it’s easier for them. The world is a lot more complicated than that and I don’t think AE pulls any punches. People just want simplicity… AE goes a bit above and beyond that, and thus, people don’t like it- since AE conflicts with their natural philosophy of the world. So they reject it.