F: : Except for small inconsequential communities such as the Amish and Mennonites and left over Hippy communes who are, forgive me, parasites. G: If they are providing for their own lives why are they parasites? Or did you mean they werent providing?
Qx: This is interesting because there is a lot of resentment of Amish and Hutterites in some places. Much of the resentment (and sometimes outright hatred) that I have witnessed towards Hutterites has been based on very bad arguments. For example, they usually live communally and buy their farm machinery straight from places like the New Holland and Caterpiller factories instead of buying from the middle men. This is a collective decision and there's really nothing parasitic about it.
After all, if one were to compare Hutterite farms in contrast to other farming operations one could see that they are self-sufficient and don't have to live a on a line of credit and then be enslaved to it. Their operations are quite diversified and so they're not gambling on any single crop. By recognizing the perils of living on credit and not becoming dependent on dealerships for purchasing farm machinery, fertilizer, seeds, etc, they have become some of the most productive farmers in much of North America. This has also earned them the hatred (and undeserved at that) of many business men and bankers whose practices are indeed parasitic.
The stodgy (and dodgy) argument of those who resent Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and hippy communes is manifested by such sayings as "they just stick to themselves" or this is "collectivism at it's worst" and so on and so forth. None of these arguments really hold water but that's what you get. These people do know that those who resent them do so for the most petty of reasons and so do they really have to provide for these detractors? I would think not. That doesn't make them parasites but types like Frenchy will always try to push a lie. Meanwhile it appears that Gee has used careful wording to avoid praising collective actions. Of course he just might deny that also.
