Posted on 02/24/2006 6:24:09 AM PST by Sam's Army
I love that you escaped Communism, one of the most evil, failures of a political/economic system ever invented by mankind. You came to America, home of the best political/economic system ever invented by mankind and your ideas to improve America are to make it more like the system you escaped.
No. However, as an employee I -- and you, too, I suspect -- would rather not be treated as a disposable labor unit who can be gotten rid of at will. And I also think that it is in the employer's best interest to avoid that as well.
In my view, you have the right to freedom and to the fruits of your own accomplishments. But you haven't the right to the property of others, nor the right to control the free will of others, true. The state also doesn't have the right to such things, which is my personal point.
As most of our founding fathers noted, a country based on extensive individual freedoms (which means the freedom to pursue one's own interest rather than pursuing some state decided common objective) cannot survive unless the citizens themselves are virtuous, unless they thus exercise the freedom to pursue their self interest with responsibility, ethics and goodwill.
To the extent that they are not virtuous, their freedom will be lost, while the power of the state grows.
Of course, one of the justifications for extensive individual freedom is one of the same justifications used for extensive governmental authority, that human beings cannot be trusted to be virtuous and good. The choice, I guess, is whether the state must reign in its unvirtuous citizens, or the citizens must be free of unvirtuous rulers. Of course, the original hope of the USA was the latter. Lost now, to a large degree, for various reasons.
Apparently the Swiss Constitution of 1848 was modeled on the US Constitution. From what I have read, they have been far more faithful to it over the years than we have been to ours.
Exactly (freemarketeers represent the corruption on the right while pro-abort/pro-atheism/pro-perversity moon-bats represent corruption on the left).
Machiavelli wrote in several places that it is very hard to maintain freedom in a corrupt society.
"Still Republican can win thanks to the Democrats obsession with "gay marriage", abortion and secularism"
Exactly. I have been making this arguement for months. All the GOP needs to do is to drive a wedge between the mainstream and the money raising wacky fring.
But oh, no. Do you ever hear a Republican naming the party of the local officials that implement secularism? Who is in charge up there in GOP HQ?
But, as one that has studied economics as a discipline - like I have at the undergraduate level and through separate book reading - that is exactly how I view myself...a labor unit with a price tag that can, and will, change abruptly with the conditions of the market for the knowledge, skills, and abilities that I can bring to the table. I know you don't believe this about me but I am being quite serious and genuine here.
What is a market unless it is mostly free?
Name the last time a poor person gave a rich one a job?
can you elaborate on this? This isn't making sense to me...perhaps I'm not interpreting what your trying to get across correctly.
The DOW is NOT the US equity markets. It is 30 big caps and it changes. Shorting the DOW has a remix risks. If you are shorting the US equities the DOW is a lousey proxy.
One question: What is the average family size today vs. the 2000?
Maybe I missed that factor in the article. Would otherwise need to be calculated.
Ditto. I had just asked the question the moment I read the article and then as I finally read all the posts...wala...you nailed the same point.
Cool!
I also know what equity markets are.
What YOU don't appear to know, is that I was replying to a post, wherein the DOW, alone, was mentioned. But since the poster started out talking about the DOW, then talked about shorting the dollar, and wound up claiming that no, he was long on the dollar but short in the equity market, leads one to believe that he's more than just confused and confusing, but playing word games.
The problem with companies treating employees like disposables -- which is what you're essentially saying that people should accept -- is that people tend to put a lot of themselves into their work, not to mention basing a lot of their financial decisions on the assumption that their job is "theirs." In a "faceless capitalism" scenario, the company's stake is far different than that of its employees.
As such, the natural response to something like outsourcing is resentment, and resentment breeds a variety of unwanted results, especially political ones. It's all very well to say that people shouldn't think that way, but the fact is that people do think that way.
Sorry I didn't articulate well.
What I meant was that most people recognize the tendency of men to commit injustices to other men.
One philosophy calls for increased power to the state (referred to variously as the people, the King, etc.) so that it can use this power to prevent men from following their tendencies to commit injustices.
The other philosophy, the "American," or English model, believes that that the state cannot be trusted with such power, because the men who wield the authority of the state are after all just men, and have not only exactly the same tendencies to commit injustice as ordinary men, they have the power of the state behind them. Furthermore, the chance to wield such power attract creeps.
In any case, the tendency of men to commit injustice serves as justification for both philosophies. But the solutions are opposites.
Hopefully I am managing this time to get accross what I'm thinking.
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