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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (37352)	6/29/2005 4:26:50 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

???? ?? ?? Hmmmm. This didn't work. SI doesn't like the Greek characters. :-)

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (37352)	6/29/2005 4:40:29 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Respond to of 90947

Depends on which one you asked. Socrates would ask you a question to clarify the issue for you, enabling you to answer it for yourself. Xenophon would try to determine, through reason, what would make the more efficient use of the resource - i.e. toward maximizing economic surplus - and lead the public accordingly. Plato would argue that, if held by one in the guardian class, then certainly it should be taken lest they be tempted by possessions and diverted from the task of wise governance. If held by one in the lower classes of society, then he would still frown upon any notion of ownership simply for the sake of ownership. It would be up to the guardian class to determine the best use of the property in the public interest and well within their authority to make it so. Anything else would threaten to disrupt the status quo. And Aristotle would weigh the proposed exchange in subjective terms of fairness or distributive justice, but would also consider the implications of the decision in terms of efficiency, the incentives and disincentives it might create, and the possible effects on social peace. And he would vehemently defend the notion of private property based on the same considerations. But you must remember, while Athens was the first democracy, it had much in the way of what we might consider communal or socialist institutions as well, so attitudes then are not necessarily transferable to today. Oh, I forgot Protagoras. He'd say "man is the measure of all things, so do what makes you feel good - or what avoids feeling bad - as long as you do it democratically and everyone has a chance to participate in the decision." ;-)