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#321
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The economics of free choice
"Robert J. Kolker" wrote in message news:OtZ2b.272964$Ho3.36269@sccrnsc03...
Tim Worstall wrote: These are the sort of things that Libertarian ideals bring you to.....nothing to do withownership as you can see, except in the sense that I own my body. While I share your libertarian twitches, I wonder if the consequences of drug use isolated just to the user. For example, how does drug use affect one's driving. Or will continued drug use lead a person to become non-productive and a burden on others. I do address that point : Driving under the influence should continue to be a crime. We live in a society where we don't just let people die (perhaps we should, but we don't). So the usual libertarian arguments that one's personal habits affect only the person, don't quite hold true. I agree that they don't hold true entirely. Especially where there are charity r Govt funded medical services, there is then some component of cost to others of drug taking. Yet I would also point out that the vast majority of drug costs come from their very illegality : adulteration and inconsistent dosing. The drug most worrying in Europe is heroin ....it's been pointed out that if the National Health Service were to prescribe H to registered addicts ( as they used to ) then a weeks supply of pahrmaceutically pure H would be less than the 6 pounds or so charged for the prescription. The NHS would make a profit on hte deal. One could, and I do, argue that the lowering of costs on police, jails, gang warfare, interdiction and the rest would be less than the costs of treating an increase in addicts. Tim Worstall If we kept people from driving if they are not alert and allowed them to die if they became sick or unemployed and used up their own resources, one would be able to make a stronger argument for the principle --- its my body---. Bob Kolker Tim Worstall |
#322
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The economics of free choice
"Roger Schlafly" wrote in message et... "Jeff" wrote That is a goofy and idiotic statement. Can you please explain what is wrong with the statement? It says that evolution towards "near laissez-faire" will incur some market failure. What is he trying to say? No, that laissez-faire is not perfect either. That if the markets are imperfect, then some of the markets won't be perfect? If so, that is a tautology. No, that is you putting words in his mouth. Or maybe he is saying that anything that is not perfect laissez-faire will have market failure? No, I think he is saying that laissez-faire itself is not perfect and with laissez-faire, some people will be hurt. If so, then that is an argument in favor of laissez-faire, not against. Then he complains that asymptotic laissez-faire utopia will have some inequalities. Guess what -- all societies have inequalities. And certainly all free societies have inequalities. I think he is saying that when a society gets to close to laissez-faire, inequalities start to go up. I guess someone posted the quote in order to make an argument that Samuelson is against asymptotic laissez-faire utopia, I disagree. I think someone posted this to make an arguement that laissiez-faire itself is not utopia. and he is an authority on the subject, and therefore it is a bad thing. But he is really saying that it doesn't exist because his political views are such that it is not his idea of utopia. That proves nothing. No one here was advocating asymptotic laissez-faire utopia anyway. I would love utopia, any type, if it existed on earth. Jeff |
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