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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (7852)	12/21/2005 6:49:53 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542043

"enlightened, long-term self interest," as Ayn Rand would say But that is where Libertarianism fails just as surely as does Communism. Communism failed to understand the importance of individual motivation. Ideal Libertarianism fails to understand the strong reach of greed. Just look at the current round of corruption in Washington. That corruption happens because the participants thought they could get away with it. Eliminating laws does not make that go away. The same is true for business and environmental regulation as well. I'd happily become a dyed in the wool Libertarian if the evidence indicated to me that people become more responsible with less regulation. But living in a farming community and observing ag practice has built a mountain of evidence that the reverse is true. Regulation keeps people in line, largely through the fear of consequences. If you eliminate the consequences, bad habits return. Look at Enron, and others in the corporate world. There is one possible non-regulatory manner of dealing with it, which is much improved transparency. Their are cybernuts who blog about the future without any privacy, and although I dislike the thought, it has some advantages. Total transparency might be a means for reduced regulation.