- Capitalism and Alternatives -

This isn't true.

In Reply to: Somewhat tautological posted by Nikhil Jaikumar on July 07, 1999 at 16:32:44:

: your argument, though not tautological, has a tautological aspect to it. the less power teh government has, the less power they can use either to build health care, etc. or to kill people. So it should be no surprise that more powerful governments do more evil things- they do more THINGS, period. under a minimalist state, individuals take over from teh government as the primary killers- hence the high rates of crime, terrorism, etc. in Brazil, England and teh United States.

This isn't true. In the United States at the turn of the century, the state was much smaller than it is today, and the percapita homicide rate was much lower. When the state became more intrusive (prohabition) the homicide rate went to an all time high. After prohabition was repealed, the homicide rate dropped. The homicide rate reached a local minima in the US in the early 1950s, and went up dramatically with the rise of the welfare state in the 60s. The US experience is more government, more crime.

In England, the crime rate has also gone up with the rise of big government. It hasen't gone up as much, but it has also started out much lower than in the US.

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