From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Wed Nov 24 2004 - 01:16:24 GMT
On 21 Nov 2004 at 17:39, Platt Holden wrote:
> platt:
> What's immoral about "inequities?"
> msh says:
> Inequities that result in one's inability to satisfy basic
> biological needs seriously impede and sometimes destroy one's
> opportunity for freedom. If such inequities are large enough
> between a vast majority and small minority within a social system,
> the social system is in danger of being destroyed if it does not
> either enforce the inequities with violence, or change in response
> to DQ to ameliorate the inequities. Since the violent solution is a
> rejection of the DQ solution, it is immoral; and therefore allowing
> inequities which may be ameliorated through DQ-inspired social
> action is also immoral.
platt:
Where do you get the idea that DQ tells us "to ameliorate the
inequities" and that the "DQ solution" is to rob Peter to pay Paul?
If you can cite a reference in the MOQ where that's said, I'd
appreciate it.
msh says:
Your reliance on the MOQ for biblical certainties is telling. Where
does the MOQ "say" that the US invasion of Iraq was a DQ solution to
the problem of terrorism?
I see a similar desire for biblical simplicity in your allusion to
robbing Peter to pay Paul, implying that there is no connection
between Peter's wealth and Paul's poverty.
A third point. It's very interesting that your demand that all ideas
be supported by literal and direct reference to the MOQ seems to go
out the window when you want to place the Individual at the top of
the MOQ's moral hierarchy.
My argument does not mention taxation specifically, although a form
of progressive taxation may very well be one of the DQ-inspired ideas
necessary to prevent the destruction of a society. As, for example,
a capitalist society's implosion was prevented by the DQ thinkers
behind The New Deal. And, please, don't tell me that Pirsig in Lila
dismantles the specific ideas of the New Dealers. He does not.
> platt:
> The main premise is "It's OK for a person to keep what he has
> rightfully earned in a free market."
> msh says:
> I disagree. This is the premise that is claimed, but a little
> reflection on the workings of the so-called "free market" reveals
> that it is a game who's rules are written by the winners, for the
> benefit of the winners. Sort of like a chess tournament wherein
> every time you win a game, you get to start the next game with an
> extra pawn taken from your opponent. In such a system it's quite
> possible for one person, playing by the rules, to end up with
> everything.
platt:
Makes you wonder why the MOQ supports the free market doesn't it?
msh says:
There's plenty of MOQ support for a free market of ideas. Anyone,
including Pirsig, who believes there exists anything like an economic
free market is economically naive. Funny, this is one of those
points I've made many times. So far, you've made no attempt to prove
me wrong, and yet you constantly advance the Myth of The Free Market
as if it is a sacred truth.
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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