OT - I don't _hate_ McMansions

[Andy Bradford]

Thus said "Bryan Sant" on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:48:54 MDT:

> I'm not  aware of  a pure  data point  to examine,  however, whichever
> society follows closest to laissez-faire prospers the most. History is
> pretty clear on this. Consider the following:

While  there are  not  likely any  historical  capitalist societies,  at
least  not  in  the sense  that  we  know  them,  there have  been  long
periods in  certain countries  in which  they lived  essentially without
government  coercion.  Interactions  were  voluntary and  there  was  no
central authority. I have read that at  one point in time Celtic law had
many  properties  of  a  society based  upon  contractual  arrangements.
Certainly  concepts  like those  that  influenced  the drafters  of  The
Declaration of Independence were radical  in many ways. Indeed, the very
concept that a people could live without  a king and instead be ruled by
``laws'' was likely tossed out as absurd by many.

But history will bear out your  statement. Those countries with the most
freedoms are also generally speaking the most wealthy and properous. Not
only that, even the poorest of  people in these countries is much better
off than many in  other less free countries. How many  of you would like
to move to Northern Africa? How many  of you would like to have lived in
Communist Russia?

Indeed, it  has been shown  that Socialism  [1] cannot function  and the
only reason  why it has  been able  to survive is  due to the  fact that
capitalism has  existed in some  form or another  contemporarily. That's
not to say that socialism, as  practiced by people who voluntarily agree
to do so, cannot work. The kind of Socialism to which I refer is the one
in which the government controls the resources and factors of production
to basically regulate and plan the economy.

1: http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/msSContents.html

Andy
-- 
[-----------[system uptime]--------------------------------------------]
 10:06pm  up  1:06,  1 user,  load average: 1.03, 1.10, 1.08