The Difference
I was at a lame-o orientation today and the benefits representative was going over the retirement packages we could choose from. Paraphrasing, he stated that those with a higher salary will have a larger portion of what they put away for retirement matched by the university than compared with those with lower salaries.
The actual statement he made was longer and used numbers so it took us all a second to process the meaning. There was a girl at my table from across from me that was painfully liberal. Me and the liberal girl both got to the meaning pretty quickly. Effectively, the more the university pays you, the more it will give towards your retirement.
Once I got to the meaning of the statement I immediately thought that I needed to work on getting rich so I can enjoy that benefit. The liberal girl made plain here thought because she blurted out: ‘the rich get richer’. The libertarian sees a benefit of wealth and thinks about how they would like to acquire that wealth. The liberal sees the benefit of wealth and thinks about its injustice.
Libertarians in conjunction with Conservatives have built the single greatest system of reducing poverty by focusing on giving benefits to the wealthy. We call it capitalism and we understand the basic concept that you must reward those that would use wealth most efficiently. In so doing, everyone gains.
Liberals in conjunction with Socialists have built one of single greatest systems of reducing wealth by focusing on distributing it equally. They call it socialism and they foolishly believe the basic concept that you must take from the wealthiest for a just society. In so doing, no one gains.
The liberal instinctively recoils at rewarding those the market deems most valuable while the libertarian instinctively invents ways to be deemed more valuable by the market.
That’s the difference.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
One of these days you’re going to have to decide whether Capitalism is good, or whether Free Markets are good. And when you do, half of your arguments are going to collapse on themselves.
BTW, our fouding fathers were conservatives? Going heavy on the crackpipe eh?
August 29th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Why don’t you tell me the difference between Free Markets and Capitalism.
Over time words have shifted in meaning. Our forefathers, considered liberals at the time, revolted over TAXATION. Liberals today seem to have a slightly different view on taxation.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Free markets mean an economy in which different goods can compete freely to be purchased. Capitalism is a system in which the means of production and the products produced are funded and owned by people other than the workers making the products.
Free market s rock, capitalism has been a marked improvement as we’ve emerged from systems of serfdom and slavery, but is not neccessarily needed for the benefits we get from free markets.
To be fair, our forefathers revolted against taxation WITHOUT REPRESENTATION; I’m willing to bet I care much more about making sure all people have equal representation in the government than you do (after all, you’ve specifically argued that rich people should have more control over our country, since being rich proves how smart they are).
August 30th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Quick question: How are markets free if a capitalist does not own the products his machines and trained labor produce.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
? The hell are you talking about?
August 30th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
If a capitalist invests in machines and train labor but is denied ownership of what the process manufactures it’s unclear how that would be a free market.
One might say, please point to a system that has free markets but lacks capitalism as another way to approach your definitions.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Marxist socialsism- not the crap that politicians tried to implement, but a simple free-market system where workers invest in and own the means of production, own their own labor, and own the products of that labor. This exists in the small scale all over the world, any time an individual or group runs their own business without any employees, but it’s never been scaled up to a larger level.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
In fact it has been scaled up. It’s called corporations.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:08 am
No, I’m pretty sure that all current corporations are capitalistic.