A libertarian doesn't necessarily have a problem with gaming the broken system, for all that they like to think of themselves as principled and often actually are...
I think even a very principled libertarian could game the system for every cent possible on the grounds that stupidity being punished for being stupid is the right and natural order - and it's their libertarian duty to maximize their individual interests as part of that order.
True Scotsman argument? Which last statement?
You hit on the concept that I think is key in the profoundly wrong legal principal of corporate personhood. A corporation can't spend the night in jail for drunk and disorderly, or do prison time for lying or fraud or theft or murder - all but the first being things corporations do all the time. They can't be punished like I can, and to pretend they have, or should, the same rights is an outrage against fundamental American egalitarian foundational principals. They don't even get shut down much, because Teddy Roosevelt is dead and Obama is no socialist.
This is hate-Bossmen and Robber Barons stuff that brings out my most stridently left politics, you know...
Someone needs to find ;domai;...I do not resent the comparison.
I mean, it's ridiculous and weird, but also kind of awesome, to imagine the Quality Assurance Minister getting voted out of office for allowing too many stale bags of Fritos to hit the shelves on his watch. ;morgan;
While I'm sure that Morgan's big talk would appeal to self-described libertarians who believe(d) that government regulation was the major cause of the collapse of civilization on Earth, it's not clear to me that a society founded on his principles would do other than descend into oligarchy at best, monopoly at worst. While I have no doubt that Morgan was self-made, it seems clear to me that part of his success was courting and becoming syncretic with, not avoiding, government.
Many large companies favor governments more activist than libertarians are wont to see. Large companies may have strategic reasons for seeking regulation (to cost new competition out of the market, for example). They may favor a tax-and-spend model of government in cases where the tax code shifts the burden away from the upper classes but succeeds in generating opportunities for contracting.
Libertarians often have an air of self-sufficiency. Morgan's push-button, over-indulged society is apt to become anything but. At some point, the Morganites will evolve from entrepreneurs to epicures. At that point, they may decide to opt for company rule under circumstances in which they are guaranteed a livelihood and a certain degree of comforts in return for their labor.
I envision that Morgan's natural tendency would be to drift toward a situation in which concentrations of inherited wealth produce an oligarchy that presides over a vast workers' dystopia policed by mercenary armies. It sounds about the way Morgan Industries operated on Earth, if the official fiction is any indication.
Now right here's a thing that's always bothered me a bit - The Free Drones. I was surprised when I got into the online community and saw a general consensus that the Drones were a splinter of The Hive, not the Morganites. I was disappointed when I realized that it was easy to miss, but explicit, that they were indeed a Hine splinter (for example, in some bits on the Domai page of the official SMACX site that we now host).
For all that it makes some sense to have communist roots for the labor faction - but people, what is the cause of communism? It is not Marx or Lenin or Chairman Yang - it's working for robber baron Bossmen like Morgan. I've worked in factories and I've been a kind of migrant labor, and trust me, I know.
I mean, it's ridiculous and weird, but also kind of awesome, to imagine the Quality Assurance Minister getting voted out of office for allowing too many stale bags of Fritos to hit the shelves on his watch. ;morgan;
Voted out of what? And by who? The Ministers of Board? Directors of Government? I always imagine Morgan running Police State to have the best return for his investments.
Has anybody quoted Ambrose Bierce's definition of corporation yet in this thread? The bit about pursuing individual profit without individual responsibility?Please do.
The fundamental principle of libertarianism is non-aggression. This should apply to neighbors as well as future generations, because taking from the government is taking from them.:)
You're fun, too, Buncle. And you're right.
Has anybody quoted Ambrose Bierce's definition of corporation yet in this thread? The bit about pursuing individual profit without individual responsibility?Please do.
Yitzi, I think you'll agree that Morgan would see his system as the most direct possible of meritocracies, yes?
Their rottweilers were
named....
Hitler and Uzi .
Do you agree with Morgan about that? The position is not without merit.