Replies

Oh good grief, unspun -- the freaking false dichotomy of "Capitalism" versus "Altruism" rears its ugly head "one more time"....

I gather somebody's been reading Lord Keynes -- and Ayn Rand -- 'way too long. Time perhaps to visit a far more interesting contemporary of Keynes'-- that would be one Joseph Shumpeter.

If anybody is interested in seeing how capitalism must incorporate some sense of altruisim just to survive in the first place, they ought to read Schumpeter's underappreciated classic: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.

Schumpeter does take a rather dim view of the long run, however. He figures capitalism will ultimately become the victim of its own success....

Meanwhile, he esteems capitalism for putting silk stockings "within the reach of factory girls" as the very model, its basic justification and motivation -- not the making of yet "more silk stockings for queens."

Thanks for the "bump in the night," unspun! I do enjoy your posts!

Well thanks and like-wise.

Thanks for the insights and references! Since I don't read nearly as much as you, I'd point out that crazy feller in the movie, too, regarding Capitalism tempered and refined.... John Nash. Of course the Person who established such notions as the "Year of Jubilee" had already been at work in tempering such working systems of fallen man and world.

I just posted something about fishnet stockings, myself this evening. I don't know which kind Betty wore, but I know she had a tender heart.

LogicWings fancies himself a logician. He said this on 1/23:

What's the matter here is that there is no matter. Matter is an illusion, there is only energy. E=MC2. And energy has existed always, has always been traveling from one place to another, will always travel from one place to another.

There is only the Light, there has only ever been The Light and there will only ever be The Light.

Location:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/821189/posts?page=1002#1002

Sounds logical.

Oh good grief, unspun -- the freaking false dichotomy of "Capitalism" versus "Altruism" rears its ugly head "one more time"....

It isn't a false dichotomy, and your sloppy denigration doesn't make it one. The world you now live in is proving the point, in reality. The tax burden is over 40% and growing. No nation has long survived with a tax burden over 25% percent. Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The pity is I am subject to your collective blindness. And you made the point yet again. Only an irrational, straw man, ad homimem, phony assertion without proof attack contrary to all the reasoned arguments I presented. Just the kind of thing I'd expect from a dyed in the wool altruist.

I gather somebody's been reading Lord Keynes -- and Ayn Rand -- 'way too long. Time perhaps to visit a far more interesting contemporary of Keynes'-- that would be one Joseph Shumpeter.

Keynes is refuted almost daily here:

http://www.mises.org/default.asp

Subscribe to their daily newsletter, learn something outside your narrow prejudices.

And if your following comments truly reflect Shumpeter's thoughts, he isn't worth reading either.

It probably isn't underrated. It is probably rated properly, which is why it is ignored.