"Stuart Wheaton" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:


Now, don't get carried away. The impulse behind libertarianism is a
perfectly good one. It's the thought that's lacking.


Many philosophies of governance seem to ignore or deny that those who rise
to positions of power and influence (both in government and in the
governed society) are capable of abusing the system and the other people
in the society. The other philosophies tend to deny that most people are
inclined to honesty and even altruism.

As the constitution was conceived, it seems to emphasize individual
freedom and liberty until that freedom interferes with another person's
freedom and liberty, at which point a court can step in and weigh the
relative burdens on each person's freedoms.

OK, that's a good basic description.


Governments also exist to represent the whole of the community, since a
company might claim the freedom to dump dioxin in the river, and it would
be hard to show that the dioxin represented harm for any given person, but
easy to make a case that it presents a risk to all of society.

Stuart

Then what the polluter has to do is to get a good lobbying firm. That worked
for decades. We'll see how much longer it works. My feeling is that there
are too many watchdogs, and there is too much Internet, for that to go on
forever.

However, it does work both ways, as we've seen with global warming. If
there's a perceived public interest in ignoring the facts, the facts will be
turned upside down and pseudo-facts inserted into the equation. For example,
there's Larry... d8-)

--
Ed Huntress