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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Grainne who wrote (97811)3/12/2005 2:45:46 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
it causes problems for society at the same time it may solve others

The question is what to do about that. Most government programs have unforeseen consequences. Where you stand on exerting the power of government in various matters is to a great extent a function of your confidence in government to fix more than it messes up. As a thirty year fed, I am well aware of the down side of managing centrally. So we have to decide whether to intervene and override the freedom of individuals to make their own choices. As you suggest, either way their will be some losses--either government distortions of natural systems or individual screw ups. I think, as a general rule, we're better off exerting a light hand and then helping those who lose out rather than proactively overruling the individual's responsibility and judgment.

I don't know if the net damage done by the war on drugs is more or less than allowing drugs to be sold and use legally. I don't think anyone knows. There will be problems either way. I doubt things could be worse than with our current model, but I don't know. I think we should at least give the matter some creative consideration.

Libertarianism is a selfish philosophy because it does not take into consideration that not everyone is capable of achieving at the same highly capable level--that some people do need more assistance from society than others, for many reasons, often beyond the control of the individual.

I do not enjoy looking at homeless people either. Your insistence on selfishness assumes that the only instrument for helping the homeless is the government. If that were the case, then you'd be right. But we can help the homeless independent of the government, certainly independent of the federal government. Assuming that libertarians selfishly have any less concern for those who fall through the cracks than statists do is not valid. Rather, it's a matter of what instruments we use.
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