Posted on 01/13/2002 8:05:27 AM PST by tonyinv
George Will just uttered the most absurd statement I've ever heard. He said (paraphrasing)
"Rebpublicans need to understand that capitalism is complex web of laws and regulations" and further "that capitalism is a government program"
I knew George Will wasn't exactly a conservative, but this is unbelievable.
Not sure what you mean.
... The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the estabilishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days labour, civil government is not so necessary.Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations", page 408 in my Oxford World's Classics edition.
Emphasis mine.
So, in other words, in the eyes of Adam Smith, protection of individual property rights is a government program. One could even argue he considers it the government program.
even some of my atheist friends live such that they treat others always as they themselves wish to be treated. This is because the atheist friends internalized the product of the Judeo-Christian morality into which they are immersed, although they chose to dispose from its source.
Once internalized, these values constitute your friend's preferences, which they, in turn, implement in their behavior.
So many names to choose from!
Whistle-blower
Party-pooper
Bush-basher
Christian conservative
or my personal favorite:
heretic
Askel I'm shocked! Please tell me it isn't so? A racist statement from you?
You're either with us or you're against us.
Please. I hope you don't take it as flattery if I tell you that you're obviously too intelligent to believe what you say.
Oh, I see where our divergence odccured: you said "our" religious beliefs, and I took it as written to mean Christianity or Judaism. You probably meant "one's beliefs" in general, in which case I am fully with you. Sorry.
Be very, very careful weikel. You've just drifted into pseudo-Askel5ism!
Seriously, though, if you believe this, then you probably aren't so far apart from her as your invocation of the "C" word might suggest...
The example of capitalism between nation states shows that capitalism can exist without an over ridding legal authority with jurisdiction to define property rights. Therefore, capitalism does not require government oversight of property rights for it to exist.
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I did say "properly". This is exactly the kind of thinking that, according to Adam Smith, requires the institution of governments to protect individual property rights. Physical possession and a gun do not define legal ownership.
shows that capitalism can exist without an over ridding legal authority with jurisdiction to define property rights. Once again, you confuse free trade with capitalism. Free trade may indeed exist between governments. It existed also between Neanderthals. This has nothing to do with capitalism.
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