tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post1389417207402588293..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: I saw Mommy kissing the continuing resolutionSteve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-31099089832320726662016-12-27T11:43:58.079-05:002016-12-27T11:43:58.079-05:00"But apart from better sanitation and medicin..."But apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?" From "Monty Python's Life of Brian"Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04075842809644056330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-5552411577692176392016-12-27T09:39:09.560-05:002016-12-27T09:39:09.560-05:00The state lives on the product of the whole econom...The state lives on the product of the whole economy the fundamental structures of which (e.g., the mix of private and public ownership of the means of production) it designs and guarantees, details varying according to fiscal and ownership arrangements.<br /><br />The state undertakes common projects which may benefit some or all, and in equal or different measure.<br /><br />Bastiat, not much different from Locke in this regard, assumes an essentially capitalist economy as a given of nature or natural law, rather than as a creation of human law and so, in the end, force.<br /><br />Hence these are favorites of the libertarian/Wall Street/neoliberal view and staples of its propaganda, who want to insist on capitalism as divine or natural in origin and state projects that benefit the less wealthy as uncompensated, involuntary, and coerced redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, and hence plain robbery.<br /><br />But many others don't see things quite that way, such as Rousseau and Hobbes, not to mention Marx and pretty much everybody in the socialist tradition.<br /><br />Or even Catholic social thought in the vein of Aquinas, for whom by natural right all things belong to everyone, and according to whom whatever the rich have beyond what they need belongs by right to the poor.<br /><br />And the surplus the rich do not hand over to the poor is stolen goods.Philo Vaihingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17150326435392881297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-41426818366722472682016-12-27T09:07:13.493-05:002016-12-27T09:07:13.493-05:00Grover doesn't mind who gets tax dollars, just...Grover doesn't mind who gets tax dollars, just who gets them.Russell LaHarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03476631413807469722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-57362289079998451402016-12-27T05:38:51.158-05:002016-12-27T05:38:51.158-05:00I'm pretty sure he just made the point that co...I'm pretty sure he just made the point that conservatives believe government is like Santa, who doesn't exist but gets the credit for some people getting free stuff.<br /><br />Liberals see government more like a boat we've all helped build so we can all get somewhere without drowning.D. Sidhehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14810866162936064310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-84727996394433557432016-12-26T22:34:37.233-05:002016-12-26T22:34:37.233-05:00Great post. As all thinking persons understand the...Great post. As all thinking persons understand the Norquist vision of a federal state "drowned-in-a-badtub" is absurd and literally cannot exist without the USA becoming 50 Luxembourgs. He knows this too. What he wants is the real GOP vision of a RW oligarchy in which federal elections are permanently gerrymandered and voter suppressed in favor of the the 4th (American) Reich. Jimbohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13891331049535299222noreply@blogger.com