Jim Sharkey wrote: > >>> I am so sick of laws protecting people from themselves. >> >> Would you support people selling themselves as slaves? >> Or people selling essencial body parts, like a cornea? > > Interesting question, but really those are straw man arguments. > You made a general statement, meaning that you are against laws that protect people from themselves. So, I want to check if you are really against _all_ such laws, or if you just want to restrict the use of them.
> However, in the spirit of your question: > > Can you really sell oneself as a slave? > Yes :-( Done in the past, probably still done in remote parts of the planet [like in the Amazon Rain Forest] > What would be the point? Once you had the money, > you could never use it, and could you possibly sell yourself > for enough money to make it worth your while? > You could sell yourself to buy food or AIDS medicine for your children, for example. > If someone felt that blinding himself had a price tag, and his > blindness would not be a burden on society, I don't see why not. > > However, allowing folks to do these things to themselves would > undoubtedly lead to a black market in stolen items, or people > being enslaved by others. As a result, I would say these things > shouldn't be allowed, despite the fact that on their surface, they > would fall under the realm of being protected from yourself. > Ok, so you aren't really sick of laws protecting people from themselves, right? But a black market can be created for *all* kinds of commerce. For example, here in Brazil the g*vernment makes several laws against tobacco [one reason why g*v candidate Jose Serra may lose - the tobacco industry hates him]. Cigarettes must include warnings against their ill effects, with graphic pictures, they can't be sold to minors, they are heavily taxed. So, there is a big black market of smuggled cigarettes. Alberto Monteiro _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
