Lost and Found
I love it when you find money. I found $42 in a pair of jeans. It was awesome. But it made me think…I could be losing a lot of money daily and not even know about it. That’s how out of tune with the wallet I’ve become. But don’t try and fuck me over on the interweb. DHL, the inferior shit-eaters of UPS, “lost” a package of mine. Fuck that. Every one of them will pay, and everyone 6 degrees from them and all their friendsters will pay too. They’re all gonna get a box of crap from a secret admirer, delievered by UPS. My wrath knows no bounds.
I also love it when you get free stuff in the mail. AOL tins make great “car frisbees.” The other day I got a little Declaration of Independence and Constitution combo, pocket size, free from the CATO Institute. They’re actually a good independent thinking bunch (the call themselves “libertarians” because you gotta have a team name these days), that dog both sides of our inane political spectrum. Which by the way, I am through with. Fuck the binary dimensional system. It’s a joke, and I’ll never vote for one of the “big two” again. Libertarians are cool. They actually think. Well…some of them do at least.
July 28th, 2005 at 1:22 am
GAAAAHHH! Hey, I agree that the perception that politics is a single-dimension, left-right issue is seriously flawed, but the Liberatarian Party is not the answer. They often push an agenda which is best described as ‘Every Man For Himself’, and that’s no way for a nation of almost 300,000,000 to act.
I believe in the Bell Curve distribution of intellegence/self-sufficency/ability-to-deal. 5% of people are intellegent, self sufficient, and can easily deal with the world around them. The next 90% of society are just ordinary schmucks trying to get by. Sure, sometimes you get a bit overwhelmed by this or that, but for the most part if you get good information you can make the right choices. Then there’s the last 5% of society that are clueless douchebags that for the most part, cannot process the information that is fed to them, and they make horrible choices that are a drain on society.
The libertarian answer is “Fuck Those People. If they can’t help themselves then why should I be put out?” I can’t go for that (Hall and Oates backing- “No Can Do!”).
I agree that it sucks that we all have to pitch in to pay for welfare people who refuse to sober up long enough to get work, that we have to spend money on social programs for uneducated ignoramuses, and that we have to involve the government bueracracy in all of our lives for things like social security, etc. But the plain fact is that we have to. If we don’t, the shit’ll really hit the fan.
Sheesh, I’m bored. Sorry for the long winded post that really didn’t explain anything. we’ll have to get some beers and discuss further.
July 28th, 2005 at 11:55 am
Hey Curt! It’s not so much the Libertarian party as it is libertarianesque thought that seduces me. But to be honest, nearly anything would be preferable to the status quo, me thinks, if for no other reason than to get Americans believing that they some options rather than the perceived yet ultimately illusory options presented every election season, by parties DUMB and DUMBER.
As far as welfare type things go, I think the LP has more of a plan than simply cutting out welfare and letting the bottom rung drop. I don’t really know much about the party itself, so I can’t speak for it…but I can see their point that welfare doesn’t work anyway (as far as mobilizing the poor), and the incentive to replace it with local charity / private welfare would probably be more effective than govenment anyway. Ultimately there will always be some type of welfare. The LP also talks about removing barriers to business that would employ more folks at that level anyway.
Maybe it would be better discussed over beer at the Earl…most things are.
July 28th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Harvey Milk at the Earl tomorrow night. 7.29.05
July 30th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Short and sweet:
The Libertarian Party libertarians(especially the CATO ones) are just Republicans who want to smoke pot, not go to church, and don’t *hate* gays, per se…
The differences are minute, as the differences between Republican and Democrat, Coke and Pepsi, Ford and Chevy.
The point of government handling social programs instead of churches or private charities, is that *all* who need it will get some help, not just those of a prescribed religeon, race or gender.
The beaurocracy develops as a result of (1)those opposed to social programs trying to obfuscate, eliminate, or hinder the effectiveness of programs, and (2) legitimate concerns about checks, balances and fairness of access to and distribution of resources.
Ayn Rand sucks, (can’t beleive she was ever paid to write one book, nevermind all the others that are the same (badly written) book!) Objectivism Philosophy is absolutely eletist (hence the reason so many middle class to wealthy white males are attracted to it!)
Libertarian Party libertarians seem to perfectly ok with corporate welfare, tax subsidies to business, business protectionism, and the absence of corporate responsability and accountability, but opposed to individuals who are down and out and need a hand up and out of poverty…
I think they suck, and i’m a libertarian (a liberal one).
July 31st, 2005 at 11:20 pm
What a provocative and hilarious post! And I mean hilarious in the sense that, in addition to making good points, you were funny, not that your ideas are laughable. On a basic level I think you’re right about Libertarians, although I would sum it up by saying they are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. However, I think many of them would take issue with the idea that they don’t care about down and out individuals. I think they might argue that where they differ with you is how best to help them, and how best to help all of us. They favor laws and programs that provide opportunities, and they prefer to leave assistance to the private (non-profit) sector, where it is handled much more efficiently in my opinion, as is most everything. Speaking of which…
Isn’t it possible that some of the beurocracy in government comes from a lack of competition? I mean, my local DMV is a highly inefficient beurocracy, but there is no one trying to impede the process, nor do I think there is any great system of checks and balances hindering their efficiency and effectiveness. I’ll tell you what is hindering it: human nature. Most of the folks working in there are just punching the clock, taking long breaks, taking as few “customers” as they can without drawing attention from the pesky supervisor, and watching the minutes tick away until quitting time. Why? I think it is because there is no company threatening to do it better and faster. If it were privatized, the system would become 1000% more efficient immediately due to the competition.
Personally, I’m all for corporate responsibility and accountability. But there are reasonable limits. We all need to accept that copropations exist to make people money. We can insist that they operate without harming us, but beyond that to strap them with a bunch of responsibilities and expenses is in conflict with their reason for existence. And since they employ our citizens and fuel our entire economy I think it is important that they exist, and without unnecessary obstacles. I DO think that they should be required to be responsible and accountable.
I think Libertarians would respond in a similar way to your comments about corporate welfare, tax subsidies, and protectionism…put simply it is important that our economic system be a place where companies are allowed and encouraged to succee and grow. That does not amount to caring more about companies (money) than people…it is caring about companies BECAUSE you care about people.
August 1st, 2005 at 10:25 pm
Munson Sez: “I mean, my local DMV is a highly inefficient beurocracy, but there is no one trying to impede the process, nor do I think there is any great system of checks and balances hindering their efficiency and effectiveness.”
Well, If you are Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik, you simply don’t go there. That’s right, the guy they wanna put in the White House refuses to get a driver’s license. Oh, and he refuses to use Zip Codes, too.
It just makes me wonder- how long have I been letting the government restrict my liberty by telling me I have to obey the traffic lights and stripes on the roads around my house? Yeah, I know- that’s anarchy not libertarianism. I’m just having a little fun with the guy. I will admit that most of my experiences with libertarians are not party officials, but “wealthy white males” I converse with. They are usually very selfish with their positions.
I’m all for getting out of Iraq as humanly possible, ending the drug war (visit http://leap.cc/ for an interesting angle), and giving individual entrepeneurs (sp?) incentive to start businesses. but we really could use health care, social security, an EPA with teeth, and the SEC. (I do roll my eyes at most extreme political correctness measures. My liberal wife refuses to even play Scrabble using points, because then somebody has to be a loser.)
August 5th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
Let us all take a break from deep political discussions and talk about unabashed self-promotion.
http://www.strongeyecontact.com/band_myview.php?bid=58
I’m looking in Chads direction for a opening slot on the next Magnapop tour.