What's the difference between libertarians and cancer cells?

[CultureCitizen]

Fueled by self interest and unregulated.

 

[norwegen]

Libertarians - freedom

Cancer cells - taxation, regulation, and transgenderism

 

[yiostheoy]

Libertarians -- soft on crime and anti capital punishment.

Cancer cells -- administer capital punishment to all of their victims.

 

[CultureCitizen]

Libertarians -- soft on crime and anti capital punishment.

Cancer cells -- administer capital punishment to all of their victims.

Actually not. They just grab resources and use them to grow at an uncontrolled rate.

 

[CultureCitizen]

Libertarians - freedom

Cancer cells - taxation, regulation, and transgenderism

Actually cancer cells are unregulated, they are asexual ( they reproduce by mitosis)... and taxation? No one taxes cancer cells.

 

[the_human_being]

Fueled by self interest and unregulated.

Some cancers can be cured. The only cure for Liberals is that they generally die at an early age.

 

[norwegen]

Libertarians - freedom

Cancer cells - taxation, regulation, and transgenderism

Actually cancer cells are unregulated, they are asexual ( they reproduce by mitosis)... and taxation? No one taxes cancer cells.

Actually, cancer cells do the regulating.

Cancer cells are invasive, you know. Benign at first. They were scarce when the Tories fled, admittedly (they had no chance in hell of succeeding then), then they had to draft a new constitution to diminish the confederacy and consolidate the states. Dissolved for their elitism and privilege, the Federalists were no more; American sentiment was still republican. But then lo, the emergence of the Democratic Party. Cancer doesn't always go away. It's sometimes just dormant.

Now, more than a century after the Progressive Era began, look how it has infected our libertarian founding.

 

[CultureCitizen]

Fueled by self interest and unregulated.

Some cancers can be cured. The only cure for Liberals is that they generally die at an early age.

Some cancer forms outlive their host ... by decades

 

[The Irish Ram]

One is an invasive, destructive mass of cells. The other is cancer.

 

[Rshermr]

Fueled by self interest and unregulated.

Cancer cells actually exist.

Libertarians worship economic societies don't exist, and never have.

 

[Treeshepherd]

The internet in a vehicle for libertarianism. We can now send emails over a communication system built by the private sector. Formerly we relied on a mail system administered by government. The USPS will be obsolete in the near future.

Solar power has become cheap enough that middle class Americans can provide their own power. The public monopoly utilities will be obsolete in the future.

In countless other ways technology is empowering libertarianism. You can self-publish, use peer to peer services like Airbnb and Uber, and educate yourself cheaply or for free on any topic without the aid of a brick and mortar university.

You can even grow your own medicine to fight cancer.

 

[CultureCitizen]

The internet in a vehicle for libertarianism. We can now send emails over a communication system built by the private sector. Formerly we relied on a mail system administered by government. The USPS will be obsolete in the near future.

Solar power has become cheap enough that middle class Americans can provide their own power. The public monopoly utilities will be obsolete in the future.

In countless other ways technology is empowering libertarianism. You can self-publish, use peer to peer services like Airbnb and Uber, and educate yourself cheaply or for free on any topic without the aid of a brick and mortar university.

You can even grow your own medicine to fight cancer.

First, thanks for actually thinking your answer before posting.

That said, most libertarians are unaware of the inherent inequality of capitalism; it has a geometric nature which is very different from the variation present in nature. Let me illustrate: if we take height, the smallest adult it is probably clos to 2 feet. The tallest person is probably 8 feet tall. So we have a ratio of 4 to 1.
If we compare incomes, the poorest people earn about $400 per year, while the richest people earn about $400 million per year.
The ratio is 1,000,000 to 1.

Uber takes 25% of the labour done by other people ( it lacks strong competitors) without doing anything really other than creating an account for car drivers and another for passengers... I want to wait to see what happens when autonomous uber cars are the norm. It will be good for customers an very , very bad for drivers.

My analogy with cancer cells is not accidental: Cancer cells are greedy they expand and multiply geometrically without control: that is the most probable outcome of a society in which greed built upon networked structures is left unchecked and externalities imposed upon the weak without any regulations ( e.g non cancerous cells).

 

[Rshermr]

The internet in a vehicle for libertarianism. We can now send emails over a communication system built by the private sector. Formerly we relied on a mail system administered by government. The USPS will be obsolete in the near future.

[/QUOTE]

Solar power has become cheap enough that middle class Americans can provide their own power. The public monopoly utilities will be obsolete in the future.

In countless other ways technology is empowering libertarianism. You can self-publish, use peer to peer services like Airbnb and Uber, and educate yourself cheaply or for free on any topic without the aid of a brick and mortar university.

You can even grow your own medicine to fight cancer.
And you can stay as ignorant as you wish, and believe in a libertarian economic system that has never, ever existed in real life.
Commercial? Really, me boy. The internet was developed for decades by the DoD and called arpanet. Nice try, though.

 

[Treeshepherd]

And you can stay as ignorant as you wish, and believe in a libertarian economic system that has never, ever existed in real life.
Commercial? Really, me boy. The internet was developed for decades by the DoD and called arpanet. Nice try, though.

Regardless of how the internet was developed or the concept was invented, the network was built and is maintained by the private sector.

I surf the net almost exclusively on my phone. The cellular towers are similarly built and maintained by the private sector.

 

[Treeshepherd]

The internet in a vehicle for libertarianism. We can now send emails over a communication system built by the private sector. Formerly we relied on a mail system administered by government. The USPS will be obsolete in the near future.

Solar power has become cheap enough that middle class Americans can provide their own power. The public monopoly utilities will be obsolete in the future.

In countless other ways technology is empowering libertarianism. You can self-publish, use peer to peer services like Airbnb and Uber, and educate yourself cheaply or for free on any topic without the aid of a brick and mortar university.

You can even grow your own medicine to fight cancer.

First, thanks for actually thinking your answer before posting.

That said, most libertarians are unaware of the inherent inequality of capitalism; it has a geometric nature which is very different from the variation present in nature. Let me illustrate: if we take height, the smallest adult it is probably clos to 2 feet. The tallest person is probably 8 feet tall. So we have a ratio of 4 to 1.
If we compare incomes, the poorest people earn about $400 per year, while the richest people earn about $400 million per year.
The ratio is 1,000,000 to 1.

Uber takes 25% of the labour done by other people ( it lacks strong competitors) without doing anything really other than creating an account for car drivers and another for passengers... I want to wait to see what happens when autonomous uber cars are the norm. It will be good for customers an very , very bad for drivers.

My analogy with cancer cells is not accidental: Cancer cells are greedy they expand and multiply geometrically without control: that is the most probable outcome of a society in which greed built upon networked structures is left unchecked and externalities imposed upon the weak without any regulations ( e.g non cancerous cells).

Perhaps Uber is not the best example. Couchsurfing.com might be more apt.

The backbone of any libertarian system is the peer to peer relationship. Everywhere around us we see technology cutting out the middleman. Perhaps in the near future you'll build your own phone (or most of it) with a 3D printer using specs downloaded from a peer.

In a makers economy it's difficult to build an empire on caramel flavored sugar water (Coca Cola). Furthermore, as we see with drug companies, it's the government which is the watchdog of the corporation (in pharma's case, enforcing their patent for a drug that was developed by the public).

A libertarian economy cannot be based on greed. That is not how any libertarian would define it. Libertarianism functions when people have faith in their neighbors. It functions like my local fire department functions, which is 100% volunteer. It functions like my road functions, which is a private dirt road that every resident helps to maintain.

 

[Treeshepherd]

I think there's two problems here in defining libertarianism and/or anarchy.

1. Firstly you have Hobbesians who are defining their antithesis. It's sort of like having a cattle rancher defining veganism. You don't tend to get a very sincere definition.

2. A lot of self-defining libertarians are in fact just greedy single-issue loudmouths. Taxes are one issue, but nobody relishes paying taxes. There are the 1st amendment people who want to exercise their free right to worship as they choose. And there are the 2nd amendment people who really really really love their guns.

We're all selective libertarians to some degree. Women who want to protect their reproductive rights without government infringement are libertarian in that regard.

 

[Rshermr]

And you can stay as ignorant as you wish, and believe in a libertarian economic system that has never, ever existed in real life.
Commercial? Really, me boy. The internet was developed for decades by the DoD and called arpanet. Nice try, though.

Regardless of how the internet was developed or the concept was invented, the network was built and is maintained by the private sector. No, it was not. the internet was developed, and the concept was developed, by the DoD. Unless you believe the DoD was the private sector, you make no sense. Please, me boy, your job is now to find an expert source that tells you the internet was a private product. Good luck.
I surf the net almost exclusively on my phone. The cellular towers are similarly built and maintained by the private sector.
Ever here of Bell Labs. Good luck with that one.
Now, where is (or was) that Libertarian economy, or society, you suggested existed?

 

[Treeshepherd]

And you can stay as ignorant as you wish, and believe in a libertarian economic system that has never, ever existed in real life.
Commercial? Really, me boy. The internet was developed for decades by the DoD and called arpanet. Nice try, though.

Regardless of how the internet was developed or the concept was invented, the network was built and is maintained by the private sector. No, it was not. the internet was developed, and the concept was developed, by the DoD. Unless you believe the DoD was the private sector, you make no sense. Please, me boy, your job is now to find an expert source that tells you the internet was a private product. Good luck.
I surf the net almost exclusively on my phone. The cellular towers are similarly built and maintained by the private sector.
Ever here of Bell Labs. Good luck with that one.
Now, where is (or was) that Libertarian economy, or society, you suggested existed?

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure this post is delivered to you over a network built and maintained by the private sector. I already noted that the concept and design of the internet was developed in the public sphere.

Libertarian societies existed among the Quakers. Some Native American tribes were fairly libertarian. The godard system in old Iceland was libertarian. The Amish of today have a rotating body of elders whose job is to facilitate consensus meetings. In all of these systems we're talking about a matter of degrees. No political system is entirely libertarian just as no political system is entirely totalitarian. The point is nuanced.

But the main idea I brought up is concerned about the future. New technologies enable peer to peer relationships that formerly were not a possibility. Technology exists today, for example, that enables people to build their own internet via wireless mesh routers.

In my opinion, the future economy will be a more distributed economy. At least, that possibility exists.

One growth sector is wearable technology. Within a decade perhaps, people will have real-time data about heart rate, blood pressure, blood chemistry, vitamin deficiencies, pathogens, etc.. A doctor won't be able to tell you much that you don't already know. That will lessen the need for health insurance to cover routine checkups.

In education, electricity production, healthcare, manufacturing, communication, publishing, etc. technologies are moving us toward a less centralized and more distributed economy.

 

[CultureCitizen]

The internet in a vehicle for libertarianism. We can now send emails over a communication system built by the private sector. Formerly we relied on a mail system administered by government. The USPS will be obsolete in the near future.

Solar power has become cheap enough that middle class Americans can provide their own power. The public monopoly utilities will be obsolete in the future.

In countless other ways technology is empowering libertarianism. You can self-publish, use peer to peer services like Airbnb and Uber, and educate yourself cheaply or for free on any topic without the aid of a brick and mortar university.

You can even grow your own medicine to fight cancer.

First, thanks for actually thinking your answer before posting.

That said, most libertarians are unaware of the inherent inequality of capitalism; it has a geometric nature which is very different from the variation present in nature. Let me illustrate: if we take height, the smallest adult it is probably clos to 2 feet. The tallest person is probably 8 feet tall. So we have a ratio of 4 to 1.
If we compare incomes, the poorest people earn about $400 per year, while the richest people earn about $400 million per year.
The ratio is 1,000,000 to 1.

Uber takes 25% of the labour done by other people ( it lacks strong competitors) without doing anything really other than creating an account for car drivers and another for passengers... I want to wait to see what happens when autonomous uber cars are the norm. It will be good for customers an very , very bad for drivers.

My analogy with cancer cells is not accidental: Cancer cells are greedy they expand and multiply geometrically without control: that is the most probable outcome of a society in which greed built upon networked structures is left unchecked and externalities imposed upon the weak without any regulations ( e.g non cancerous cells).

Perhaps Uber is not the best example. Couchsurfing.com might be more apt.

The backbone of any libertarian system is the peer to peer relationship. Everywhere around us we see technology cutting out the middleman. Perhaps in the near future you'll build your own phone (or most of it) with a 3D printer using specs downloaded from a peer.

In a makers economy it's difficult to build an empire on caramel flavored sugar water (Coca Cola). Furthermore, as we see with drug companies, it's the government which is the watchdog of the corporation (in pharma's case, enforcing their patent for a drug that was developed by the public).

A libertarian economy cannot be based on greed. That is not how any libertarian would define it. Libertarianism functions when people have faith in their neighbors. It functions like my local fire department functions, which is 100% volunteer. It functions like my road functions, which is a private dirt road that every resident helps to maintain.

I like your idea: dividing power structure, which is what actually creates the inherent inequality of capitalism.
Unfortunately that is not something which will happen under capitalism ( at least not as we know it )
I respect the basic idea ( as much as I respect Penn Jillette), but it is naive to think that capitalism will ever evolve into something like that out of pure freedom ( and greed), those promoting libertarianism forget that the economic network created by large corporations ( uber is perhaps the best example you could put) favour inequality and trickle up economics.
If you truly want a more egalitarian society it is of the utmost importance that you seek ways to break down such power structure ( of course, that includes the government ... it is just that most libertarians I know think large corporatins are ok , but having large government is allways wrong).
The economist Richard D' Wolf has proposed having only cooperatives.

 

[Treeshepherd]

Cryptocurrency is another example.
Bitcoin is far from perfect. But, it's a start.

Technology exists today that enables currency to be regulated by math instead of by central banks. At least, it exists as a hedge against the 20th century model of money. We saw that during the Greek crisis when there was a flight to bitcoin among Grecians.