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The Injustice of Social Justice (and the true nature of rights)
Mises Institute ^ | March 16, 2011 | Ben O'Neill

Posted on 03/16/2011 7:07:40 PM PDT by sickoflibs

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The Peter Schiff/Austrian Economics ping. (Washington Bankrupting our Nation by Spending your past, present and future money!)

If you realize both parties in Washington think that our money is theirs and you trust them to do the wrong thing, this list is for you.

If you think there is a Santa Claus who is going to get elected in Washington and cut your taxes, spend a few trillion and that will jump-start the economy, this list is not for you.

You can read past posts by clicking on : schifflist , I try to tag all relevant threads with the keyword : schifflist.

Ping list pinged by sickoflibs.

To join the ping list: FReepmail sickoflibs with the subject line add Schifflist.

(Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop Schifflist.)

The Austrian School’s Commandments plus :From : link

1) You cannot spend your way out of a recession
2) You cannot regulate the economy into oblivion and expect it to function
3) You cannot tax people and businesses to the point of near slavery and expect them to keep producing
4) You cannot create an abundance of money out of thin air without making all that paper worthless
5) The government cannot make up for rising unemployment by just hiring all the out of work people to be bureaucrats or send them unemployment checks forever
6) You cannot live beyond your means indefinitely
7) The economy must actually produce something others are willing to buy
8) Every government bureaucrat should keep the following motto in mind when attempting to influence the economy: “First, do no harm!”
9) Central bank-supported fractional reserve banking is an economically distorting, ethically questionable activity. In particular, no government should ever do anything to save any bank from the full consequences of a bank run, no matter what the short-term consequences.
10) Gold is God’s money.

Add mine:

1) Businesses don't hire workers just because of demand for products or services, they hire because it makes them money. Sorry to have to state the obvious.
2) Government spending without taxing is still redistribution
3) Taking one man's money and giving it to another is not a job.
4) Paul Krugman and Bernake have been wrong about everything, as well as the other best and brightest Keynesian's who have been fixing our economy for over a decade.
5) Republicans in the minority (esp out of the White House) act like Republicans, in the majority they act like Democrats .

1 posted on 03/16/2011 7:07:45 PM PDT by sickoflibs
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To: LMAO; DeaconBenjamin; April Lexington; murphE; RipSawyer; Tunehead54; preacher; 1234; coloradan; ...
The Peter Schiff/Austrian Economics ping. (Washington Bankrupting our Nation by Spending your past, present and future money!)

I love when Jesse says "Social justice".

2 posted on 03/16/2011 7:11:12 PM PDT by sickoflibs ("It's not the taxes, the redistribution is the federal spending=tax delayed")
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To: sickoflibs

“3) Taking one man’s money and giving it to another is not a job.”

Oh, sure it is. It’s the job of a thief.


3 posted on 03/16/2011 7:12:18 PM PDT by PENANCE
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To: sickoflibs

Ministry of Plenty Bookmark.


4 posted on 03/16/2011 7:15:12 PM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
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To: sickoflibs

If everything is a right then nothing is. This is the scenario of oligarchs.


5 posted on 03/16/2011 7:16:54 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: PENANCE

Social Justice is just another name for communism


6 posted on 03/16/2011 7:18:17 PM PDT by screaminsunshine (34 States)
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To: sickoflibs

Social Justice is an attempt to define right and wrong apart from God’s Laws. For proof we only have to notice how easily that doctrine demands the destruction of property rights, and how quickly it implies that people are free to live at the expense of others.

The foundation of social justice is to replace the Commandments that forbid theft and coveting with a government that must steal from one set of citizens in order to be fair to another set.

A society attempting to achieve social justice cannot find what it seeks, for justice can never come through violent coercion. Further:

Without property rights, there cannot be a free market in the exchange of goods and services.

Without a free market, without a willing buyer and a willing seller, it is IMPOSSIBLE to know the real price of anything.

Without the price, it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to make the necessary economic calculation, that is to know when the inputs to an activity (labor or raw materials) costs more or less than the output of an activity (the value of the thing produced or service performed).

Without the economic calculation, it is IMPOSSIBLE for an economic activity to make a profit and thus be sustainable. Conversely, it is IMPOSSIBLE for an unprofitable economic activity to be sustainable.

Without profit, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have resources from which to feed, clothe and house those who are involved in the activity.

Without profit, it is IMPOSSIBLE, to have excess resources to set aside in the form of savings.

Without savings, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have capital to invest in new economic activities.

Without the ability to have property rights to those savings, it is IMPOSSIBLE to evaluate all of the other possible economic activities to find the ones that carries the least risk when compared to their anticipated return, and to properly allocate savings to the most promising investments.

Without new economic activity and without the ability for others to invest as it suits the saver, the economy cannot have the opportunity nor the resources with which to adapt to changing circumstances, let alone to provide jobs and resources for the next generation.

Without honest money, government is free to destroy the very means of accounting for and exchanging wealth. Without the assurance that money will retain its value, people will not save but instead will either consume excess wealth or will store it in forms like fixed assets that preclude investment in new economic activity.

In other words, without property rights, a free market, price information that allows economic calculation of profit, the ability to save with the assurance those savings are free to be invested when and where the saver sees fit, and without honest money, a sustainable economy is IMPOSSIBLE.

Without a sustainable economy, it is IMPOSSIBLE for humans to exist. This is exactly the reason that North Koreans are reduced to foraging for bark and grass to fill their empty stomachs. Their government forbids property rights, forbids a free market, destroys price information, confiscates savings, forbids investment and has no economic growth.

Liberty, property, profit, investment, capital and honest money are the only means of creating a sustainable economy. All other ways have been tried and have failed utterly. Yet, somehow, property rights, profit, capital and honest money are still considered to be evil, particularly in the thinking of people still yearning for the perfect socialist Utopia. Socialism is in reality the economy of death, and Social Justice is the justice system of the Grim Reaper.


7 posted on 03/16/2011 7:50:46 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: theBuckwheat

You said a lot, but it’s all on the nose. If I may, a corollary:

Without loss, it is IMPOSSIBLE to prevent the wasteful allocation and use of resources.


8 posted on 03/16/2011 8:02:38 PM PDT by trubolotta
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To: theBuckwheat; NFHale
Yet, somehow, property rights, profit, capital and honest money are still considered to be evil, particularly in the thinking of people still yearning for the perfect socialist Utopia.

great presentation Buckwheat...

9 posted on 03/16/2011 8:20:47 PM PDT by Gilbo_3 (Gov is not reason; not eloquent; its force.Like fire,a dangerous servant & master. George Washington)
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To: screaminsunshine

“Social Justice is just another name for communism.”

Indeed it is. I just finished reading Bill Ayers book, “Teaching For Social Justice” 1998, published by Teachers College Press.

The book is frightening and I can assure you that Glenn Beck is dead on about the goals of the ‘Social Justice’ movement.


10 posted on 03/16/2011 8:28:27 PM PDT by panaxanax (*Memo to Jim DeMint: Check your mail. Your DRAFT NOTICE will be arriving soon!)
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To: sickoflibs

ping


11 posted on 03/16/2011 8:30:47 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: sickoflibs

I have a right to free beer.


12 posted on 03/16/2011 8:39:44 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: screaminsunshine

Social justice is envy, a sin.


13 posted on 03/16/2011 8:47:32 PM PDT by Roy Tucker ("You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."--Ayn Rand)
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To: sickoflibs

“An actual right is a moral prerogative derived from the application of moral philosophy to the nature of man.”

At least the author gave a definition for right, which is more than I see in a lot of writing about rights. Whether or not I will agree to his definition will have to wait for a time when I’m not to tired to think about it.

“Hence, there can be no such thing as a right to shoes, ice cream...”

I have to disagree with that. I have shoes in my closet and ice cream in my freezer. They are mine. I paid for them. They are my property. I have a right to that particular property.


14 posted on 03/16/2011 9:31:30 PM PDT by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Curs(ed be those who don't.)
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To: theBuckwheat

“Without a sustainable economy, it is IMPOSSIBLE for humans to exist.”

Please elaborate on that in regard to the humans who came across the Bering Strait to what became known as North America.


15 posted on 03/16/2011 9:42:33 PM PDT by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Curs(ed be those who don't.)
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To: panaxanax; screaminsunshine
[ss] “Social Justice is just another name for communism.”

Well, not quite.

I prefer to think of it as a propagandist's euphemism for "people's justice" such as was dispensed by Bolshevik firing squads back in 1918.

If there were a realistic attempt to define it with words and concepts rather than 7.62x54mm bullets, it would be the dispensing of punishments and dispossession by the Communists of people they called "Enemies of the State" or "Enemies of the People" for purposes of seizing and buttressing Soviet power.

16 posted on 03/17/2011 1:24:28 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus (Concealed carry is a pro-life position.)
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To: KrisKrinkle; sickoflibs; Loud Mime
I came across this definition of Natural Rights from Randy Barnett's Restoring the Lost Constitution.

"Natural Rights are the set of concepts that define the moral space within which persons must be free to make their own choices and live their own lives if they are to pursue happiness while living in society with others."

Unless our Ninth Amendment/Natural Rights are asserted soon, it will be over. We let our government get away with so much for so long they will soon get away with everything. What aspect of our lives does not groan under the weight of regulation and taxation? What area of life does not require some form of permission or surveillance from government?

17 posted on 03/17/2011 3:04:06 AM PDT by Jacquerie (The Constitution is law to restrict lawmakers.)
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To: KrisKrinkle

“Please elaborate on that in regard to the humans who came across the Bering Strait to what became known as North America.”

?? What kind of silly question is that?? You could ask the same thing of people who made long ocean voyages. The answer is that in all cases, there must have been sufficient provisions for the journey and when possible these were supplemented with whatever could be locally acquired.

If a party set off without sufficient provisions or skills, they would have all died and in many cases not a trace would have been left. So nobody would know today of the attempt.

But in all cases, marshaling provisions for such a journey is a form of “savings”.


18 posted on 03/17/2011 5:56:23 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Paladin2

I’m waiting for someone to say they have a right to be young, beautiful, and slender forever.


19 posted on 03/17/2011 6:18:47 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: theBuckwheat
?? What kind of silly question is that??

Actually, it was a request, not a question.

You could ask the same thing of people who made long ocean voyages.

You could. You could ask the same of people who make long ocean voyages today. But neither set of people are primitive enough for my intent, which is to delve into the statement: “Without a sustainable economy, it is IMPOSSIBLE for humans to exist.”

The answer is that in all cases, there must have been sufficient provisions for the journey and when possible these were supplemented with whatever could be locally acquired.

If a party set off without sufficient provisions or skills, they would have all died and in many cases not a trace would have been left.

Stipulating for the moment that having sufficient provisions for the journey depended on a sustainable economy, your answer does not provide a sufficient elaboration. It raises the question of whether or not those who crossed the Bering Strait somehow remained participants in the economy of East Asia or established a new economy, and if the latter, what was the nature of the economy, particularly for the first/new arrivals. Among other things, what did they have that would be of value to others that the others could not provide for themselves?

In regard to the stipulation above, what I stipulated is not really true. Having sufficient provisions for the journey would not have depended on a sustainable economy. The economy could have been unsustainable, the journeyers could have grabbed up what was available and then left. That being the case they would not remained participants in the economy of East Asia.

All in all, I think you'd have been better off trying to establish that primitive people establish some sort of micro economy or something within their own close knit group, that that economy has to be sustainable and that it may eventually join other such economies to make something larger. By "close knit group" I mean village/settlement, clan, tribe, nomadic group, the people they see and interact with daily.

And I doubt the accuracy of the statement: “Without a sustainable economy, it is IMPOSSIBLE for humans to exist.”

I think they could exist at the subsistence level at least.

In conclusion, I'm kind of running out of time an interest for this right now.

20 posted on 03/17/2011 8:45:58 AM PDT by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Curs(ed be those who don't.)
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