From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Thu Jan 20 2005 - 18:04:35 GMT
On 20 Jan 2005 at 9:40, Platt Holden wrote:
msh said:
But that's not my starting premise. My premise, the one that is
important to this thread, is that profit-making for the few, to the
detriment of the many, is an extremely low-quality form of socio-
economic system. That is, when individuals attempt to enhance their
personal social and biological positions in a way that destroys
freedom for others, thereby putting at risk society as a whole, they
are behaving immorally.
This is why I believe that certain vital services should not be
privatized for profit.
platt:
I assume one of your "vital services" is reporting the news which, in
lieu of being provided by a profit-making organization would be
provided by ________?
Your answer will be most interesting I'm sure.
msh says:
I believe that in a well-rounded society room will be made for BOTH
profit-driven and non-profit-driven institutions. So people who want
commercial saturated and subsidized tv and radio news can get it, and
those who don't may have some viable alternatives. This would of
course mean allocating broadcast and cable licenses in a way
radically different from the bribe-based system currently in place.
But this is a logistical problem than can be overcome by dedicated
thinkers, given the freedom to engage in, and act upon, an open and
high-quality interchange of dynamic ideas.
platt:
As for the evils of profit-making, what do you have to say in
response to Pirsig's endorsement of free markets?
msh says:
I think the MOQ makes it quite clear that any biological activity
that threatens social institutions is immoral; just as are any social
institutions that threaten intellectual values like freedom of
thought, information, or survival. Therefore, when profit-making
threatens the survival and freedom of others, it is immoral.
As for Pirsig's endorsement of free markets, I agree that in theory
they are dynamic and therefore good. But since nothing like a free-
market system exists in reality, the point is moot. We could,
however, work to implement such a system. A good start would be for
the government to refuse to bail out failed and/or corrupt
businesses, such as energy companies, banks, airlines, weapons
manufacturers, and to stop funding corporate research and
development through grants and use of publicly owned research
facilities such as university labs.
That would be a start. And, if we ever get the Quality of Capitalism
thread going, I hope we'll be able to develop more ideas there.
Thanks,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
-- InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983 Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com "The shadows that a swinging lamp will throw, We come from nowhere and to nothing go." MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archives: Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jan 20 2005 - 18:08:53 GMT