- Capitalism and Alternatives -
The Bottom Line.
Posted by: borg on October 13, 1999 at 15:10:26:
In Reply to: A positioning statement posted by Gee on October 12, 1999 at 16:35:14:
The upshot is, capitalism is the only system that INTELLIGENTLY uses
INTELLIGENTLY SELFISH PEOPLE to EVERYONE's benefit. (And this is a
reason why it ought to appeal to altruists.) For the small price of
seeing the bitch slaving away 16 hours a day and letting her get
filthy rich, we get all her tremendously self-interested energy
channelled creatively in the production of things that we (hopefully)
find useful. This is, on the whole, a much better deal than giving
her POLITICAL POWER OVER US (which is the only other alternative - and
you can bet she will rise to the top of *that* pond too!) We all, ESPECIALLY the "weak", have a choice about what to do with
regard to strong, intelligently selfish people. We can kill them,
harness them by appealing to their reason, or surrender all power to
them and hope they'll be nice. The first is only rarely possible
given enough numbers, and ex hypothesi difficult, and not very nice;
the second is the libertarian way, the third is (effectively, did the
poor fools but realise it) the socialist way. - Guru George
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