Personally I'm against the death penalty, mainly because one's life (and one's rights) are what the State should be trying to protect. Also there is always the possibility of mistake.
Regarding trying children as adults: it really depends. There's a big difference between a 4 year old shooting someone (they can barely speak properly, let alone make sense of what they're doing) and a 16 year old shooting someone.
Hope this helps and shows you that I'm not a barbaric American!! Mind if I ask from which country you are?
Hey, the Colorado river (and Hoover Dam) is about 1 hour from Las Vegas. We could build a nuclear power plant on it, use the Colorado river to cool it, and dump the waste into Yucca Mountain! Convenient, and makes use of the vast desert wasteland that is the rest of Nevada. (I live in Las Vegas).
Disclaimer: I am a libertarian caucasian male born and living in the United States. Some of the things I mention are governmental policies, some are cultural practices, and some are both.
I would define "invalid" as burning women alive with their dead husbands, allowing child labor, forcing women to cover their entire bodies and not speak in public, not allowing women to be educated or work in the same way as men, disregarding basic human rights, and even disregarding basic property rights and respect for the individual. There are lots of reasons why poor countries are poor, and the lack of the rule of law and respect for private property rights are two large ones.
If anyone wants to argue with me about why any of these cultural/governmental practices are indeed valid and the opposition of which would be "Western cultural imperialism," go ahead.
Good comment. Free trade in people/labor is little different than free trade in goods and services. If the latter is good for everyone (except the domestic producers of that product) then how can the former be bad?
The government gets paid more for every new member it "recruits." It uses the money from the new "investors" (younger taxpayers) to pay off the older "investors" (retirees). So essentially yes, the more "new investors" that are "recruited," the more the "old investors" get paid. (after the money is shuffled through the massive government bureaucracy, of course.) Hope this helps.
Great post, although if government involvement is necessary I'd still prefer to have it privately owned and operated but regulated, like utilities are here in Las Vegas.
I know; I was going for Funny. And I wrote that thing about "because" because the previous sentence I started with because. I didn't mean to tell the person who replied to do so, haha.
What happens when you dive/dig so deep that you actually pass through the center of the earth? Would it just switch over to a different satellite and say you're in China? (because China is obviously directly opposite the USA). Start a sentence with "because."
The real problem in Africa is that governments don't respect the sanctity of the individual (because they're mostly cruel dictatorships) and thus don't enforce private property rights.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but that is how everything else works in the world. New expensive technology develops (examples: cars, washing machines, etc) and only the rich can afford them. They eventually become mass produced and cheaper, and thus the rest of societies can afford them. Unfortunately washing machines and cars haven't reached some peoples yet, but that's a result of a lot of factors.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. School choice, parental control of drinking, etc are all good.
Personally I'm against the death penalty, mainly because one's life (and one's rights) are what the State should be trying to protect. Also there is always the possibility of mistake.
Regarding trying children as adults: it really depends. There's a big difference between a 4 year old shooting someone (they can barely speak properly, let alone make sense of what they're doing) and a 16 year old shooting someone.
Hope this helps and shows you that I'm not a barbaric American!! Mind if I ask from which country you are?
Man, we should just build the nuclear power plant under the Pacific Ocean. It would keep cool and we wouldn't have those ugly "silos"!!
Hey, the Colorado river (and Hoover Dam) is about 1 hour from Las Vegas. We could build a nuclear power plant on it, use the Colorado river to cool it, and dump the waste into Yucca Mountain! Convenient, and makes use of the vast desert wasteland that is the rest of Nevada. (I live in Las Vegas).
Disclaimer: I am a libertarian caucasian male born and living in the United States. Some of the things I mention are governmental policies, some are cultural practices, and some are both.
I would define "invalid" as burning women alive with their dead husbands, allowing child labor, forcing women to cover their entire bodies and not speak in public, not allowing women to be educated or work in the same way as men, disregarding basic human rights, and even disregarding basic property rights and respect for the individual. There are lots of reasons why poor countries are poor, and the lack of the rule of law and respect for private property rights are two large ones.
If anyone wants to argue with me about why any of these cultural/governmental practices are indeed valid and the opposition of which would be "Western cultural imperialism," go ahead.
Too bad its stock price will also be close to zero cents per share in 2010. :)
Good comment. Free trade in people/labor is little different than free trade in goods and services. If the latter is good for everyone (except the domestic producers of that product) then how can the former be bad?
I think it's a well-known law of the universe that one cannot simultaneously read digg and Slashdot. Maybe it's just me.
The government gets paid more for every new member it "recruits." It uses the money from the new "investors" (younger taxpayers) to pay off the older "investors" (retirees). So essentially yes, the more "new investors" that are "recruited," the more the "old investors" get paid. (after the money is shuffled through the massive government bureaucracy, of course.) Hope this helps.
That is a really good point.
Come on, let's get real. That won't stop the NSA.
Interestingly, most things the Government does would be illegal if done privately. Social Security is a pyramid scheme if I've ever seen one.
Just a question: How do you keep track of all the different passwords of all the different websites which you sign into?
Great post, although if government involvement is necessary I'd still prefer to have it privately owned and operated but regulated, like utilities are here in Las Vegas.
Which country do you live in?
Hooray for deregulation and free markets...
Because Government could run an ISP company better than the private sector! Just like government runs everything else better than the private sector!
I shudder to imagine your spam folder. A decade of being shuffled through various spammers' databases...
Maybe we should ask Brendan Fraser?
You're right; sorry about that.
I know; I was going for Funny. And I wrote that thing about "because" because the previous sentence I started with because. I didn't mean to tell the person who replied to do so, haha.
Come on, Nessie isn't an alien. Oh wait, that's in England.
What happens when you dive/dig so deep that you actually pass through the center of the earth? Would it just switch over to a different satellite and say you're in China? (because China is obviously directly opposite the USA). Start a sentence with "because."
The real problem in Africa is that governments don't respect the sanctity of the individual (because they're mostly cruel dictatorships) and thus don't enforce private property rights.
*the rest of society
I'm not disagreeing with you, but that is how everything else works in the world. New expensive technology develops (examples: cars, washing machines, etc) and only the rich can afford them. They eventually become mass produced and cheaper, and thus the rest of societies can afford them. Unfortunately washing machines and cars haven't reached some peoples yet, but that's a result of a lot of factors.