Antibiotics show free market failure

[Seth]

Libertarianism holds that most people do behave responsibly, which is observably true

It's observably false, in fact I have grave doubts people even act primary as individuals. We are a hive collective with some variation within that collective. With the right use of media we can make most of the human race do just about anything.

You will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison....is it working yet?

[MrJonno]

You will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison....is it working yet?

You will eat Big Mac's , you will drink 5 litres of Coke, you will eat XXX

Damn right it works


Fat taxes and restrictions on sugar are currently being considered over here, don't know if it will happen but the fact is you can get people to eat rat poison with the right marketing

[pErvinalia]

MARXISM!!1!

[MrJonno]

MARXISM!!1!

Doesn't Seth go on about the marxist media turning everyone into marxists?

I wish!

[Seth]

You will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison...you will eat rat poison....is it working yet?

You will eat Big Mac's , you will drink 5 litres of Coke, you will eat XXX

Damn right it works

Yeah, and we like to call that "liberty." You see, we don't need officious, nosy fuckwits who have delusions of intelligence telling us what we may or may not eat or drink. It's none of their fucking business whatsoever, and Michelle Obama can stick her dietary meddling right up her smelly cunt.

Fat taxes and restrictions on sugar are currently being considered over here, don't know if it will happen but the fact is you can get people to eat rat poison with the right marketing

Please enlighten me to a marketing plan that would persuade you to eat rat poison.

[MrJonno]

Please enlighten me to a marketing plan that would persuade you to eat rat poison.

Not calling it rat poison would probably be a good start

[mistermack]

Please enlighten me to a marketing plan that would persuade you to eat rat poison.

Not calling it rat poison would probably be a good start

Market it as the drug warfarin, and tell em it prevents clots.
Oops, someone did it already.

Yeh, and put some cocaine in it.
They have cut drugs with worse stuff than rat poison before now.

[pErvinalia]

That sounds like the free-market, MM. Surely you are mistaken. That would never happen in the free market..

[MrJonno]

Actually there is one thing the rich and powerful haven't managed to get people to do yet and that is turn the masses into libertarians. The rich are very powerful and the masses can be dumb but the rich aren't that powerful and the dumb that stupid (yet anyway)

[Hermit]

Actually there is one thing the rich and powerful haven't managed to get people to do yet and that is turn the masses into libertarians.

Not quite libertarians, no, but they repeatedly persuade a sufficient number of workers into voting for politicians whose policies are against workers' interests to get those politicians into government. In Australia those sheeple are called "the aspirational classes". Thatcher, anybody? The Bushes? Merkel? Howard? Dozens of others?

[MrJonno]

I don't think the meme of 'don't increase taxes for the better off because I might be better of one day has ever really taken of in the UK'. People are sensible enough to realise that

a) they are very unlikely to be significantly better of than they are today (people are far more concerned about being significantly poorer)
b) Even if they do become rich they can campaign to lower taxes when they get there

[JimC]

Libertarianism holds that most people do behave responsibly, which is observably true

It's observably false, in fact I have grave doubts people even act primary as individuals. We are a hive collective with some variation within that collective. With the right use of media we can make most of the human race do just about anything.

You're not a Borg by any chance, Jonno?

[Blind groper]

To Seth

Re outlawry.

In England, in the year 1300, outlawry was a very common form of 'justice'. The murder rate was 80 killings per 100,000 people per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today, and 1.2 in England today.

The lowest crime rate (and especially violent crime) in history is that we have today, which implies we must be doing something right. Lawmakers and police have the greatest beneficial impact on reducing crime and anti-social behaviour of any system ever tried. There have been many systems of extreme freedom, similar to the Libertarianism that Seth advocates. For example, the American wild west. In every case, murder rates were massive. The American wild west had a murder rate many times greater than what we see today, even in the murderous USA.

[Seth]

Please enlighten me to a marketing plan that would persuade you to eat rat poison.

Not calling it rat poison would probably be a good start

Like I would eat anything you procured.

[Seth]

To Seth

Re outlawry.

In England, in the year 1300, outlawry was a very common form of 'justice'. The murder rate was 80 killings per 100,000 people per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today, and 1.2 in England today.

The technological fix for that is to arm all citizens and tattoo all outlaws faces blue and then tell the citizenry they can shoot anyone with a blue face.

The lowest crime rate (and especially violent crime) in history is that we have today, which implies we must be doing something right. Lawmakers and police have the greatest beneficial impact on reducing crime and anti-social behaviour of any system ever tried. There have been many systems of extreme freedom, similar to the Libertarianism that Seth advocates. For example, the American wild west. In every case, murder rates were massive. The American wild west had a murder rate many times greater than what we see today, even in the murderous USA.[/quote]

Actually, murder in the Old West was relatively uncommon, with notable exceptions in notable communities. By and large it was a pretty peaceful time if you ignore the Indian wars.