Steve Buyer Quotes

Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.

He was discussing “Stand Your Ground Laws” which were enacted to solve one problem, but then effected many other things negatively. The law, once passed, is the law regardless of whether it has adverse consequences that the legislators never anticipated. This is one of the reasons that drafting legislation is such a difficult skill.

Some economic conservatives see little or no role for government. For many of them, in a free market there is no role for government. This quotation, from one of the economic heroes of the conservatives, shows that he not only saw a role for government, but believed that government was essential to the operation of a free market.

Mises observes the classic philosophical quandary of business and commerce. If we cannot leave everything to the market place and the capitalists and entrepreneurs because they are morally and ethically fallible, will not the government people who regulate and control them be equally moral and fallible? Mises critics point out that Mises misses the difference in a democracy, that if fallible businessmen err, all can suffer and their personal vested interests do not necessarily coincide with the interests of the majority in general. If the government representative of the majority are fallible and err, the majority can correct them and if the majority does not, the people have undone themselves and have not been the victims of the foibles of a few privileged people in the society. Mises argues that it is the minority who, if left alone, would produce the best standard of living for the majority who should exercise they right to regulation only by their acts as consumers.

The Grammar Curmudgeon. Almost every government action to protect rights impinges on the rights of some. For example, laws to protect minorities from discrimination in the workplace impinge on the right of employers to hire whomever they want. The Voting Rights Act eliminating the Poll Tax instituted to prevent Negroes from voting, impinged on the Southern States’ rights to determine the election rules and standards for their states. Laws requiring all pharmaceuticals to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect the public from dangerous drugs interfere with the doctor’s and patient’s rights to determine the best treatment and the drug company’s right to sell whatever products they want.

Owner of one of the only 2 Mexican Television Networks. Pemex is the only oil company in the world, government or private, that loses money.

In the latter half of the 20th century socialist thinking generally shifted from seeing Capitalism as the problem of society to viewing capitalism as a necessary component of modern democratic socialism. See {637821} as an example. The standard of living of all the workers depended in great part on the success of capitalism in the country. With that importance came more and more influence on government officials by capitalists. Many of the socialists and other left wingers frequently think the situation has gone too far, and it is the capitalists who are running the nation and not the citizens.

This was a criticism of most Republicans who generally claimed that they were against big government and government interference. Except however, they tended to support strong government interference about abortion, contraception, and other issues involving women’s control over their bodies. The Republicans mostly favored government prohibiting personal drug taking, couples right to divorce, right to marry, homosexual behavior, the right to die and other personal issues. However, Frank, who espoused government non-interference in these areas, was one of the strongest advocates in Congress for government interference with business and commercial activities.