On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 spudboy100 via Everything List < everything-list@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> > > Even Peter Theil, > > the Paypal guy doesn't see the advantage of free enterprise capitalism, > and e identifies as a Libertarian. Money changes everything. Theil might not be as radical as some libertarians in that he doesn't advocate the complete elimination of government but to say he doesn't see the advantage of free market capitalism would be going much too far, and Theil has said some things that I like a lot, such as: “I don’t think we can solve any of our problems without technological progress . That is, in my mind, the single most important issue. It’s one that’s not particularly high on the political agenda of any of our leaders in Washington, most of whom are fairly scientifically illiterate and uninterested or hostile to technology.” “I always find it odd that people are as complacent as they are about things. One out of three people at age 85 has dementia and this is not even cause for general alarm.” “I believe it’s generally an issue of stagnation. I believe if we have 4 percent a year of GDP growth, all these problems would get solved,” John K Clark Technological advancement, Thiel believes, is the key to solving many of our most pressing concerns, and his most radical solutions seem to lie outside government. For instance, he’s funded <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/peter-thiel-seasteading_n_930595.html> both a floating island-city free of government regulation and a program that encourages <http://%20-worth-it-theyre-just-wrong/> entrepreneurial high schoolers go into the startup world instead of the Ivy League. But calling him a “libertarian” may be a bit of misnomer. He seems brazenly ambivalent about the very concept of liberty—the “leave me alone” philosophy that has gripped the grassroots insurgence within the Republican Party. I’m not dogmatic about government having to have a small role, but it depends on how well the government works,” he says. “If you had a government as effective as the New Deal government or say the Kennedy administration in the ’60s, you could have a much larger role for government.” Thiel is unfazed by typical liberal policies like minimum wage and coercive regulation, which trigger the *1984* alarm bells among the hyper anti-government wing of conservatives. When I asked him about how Silicon Valley could help solve some of the vicious inequality that technology has created, his normally nuanced answers became terse. He almost seemed bored. “I would be supportive of higher minimum wage laws,” he says, but it he’s worried about welfare policies that discourage work and let skills “atrophy.” It’s not that Thiel doesn’t care about the poor, but that he seems to see redistribution as a kind of Band-Aid placed on an ax wound. “I believe it’s generally an issue of stagnation. I believe if we have 4 percent a year of GDP growth, all these problems would get solved,” he argued confidently, in a much more lively tone. Perhaps the best way to understand Thiel’s ethos (and, perhaps the tech elite’s) is that they care more about progress than they do about our current crises. Political skirmishes over inequality are to him the historical equivalent of fighting over how doctors should be distributing leeches to the poor. Speaking about technology’s role in solving big issues like cancer and mental illness, he noted, “I always find it odd that people are as complacent as they are about things. One out of three people at age 85 has dementia and this is not even cause for general alarm.” Much of Thiel’s startup-advice book makes the case that capitalism is a game of Monopoly. He advises young entrepreneurs that the entire goal of any good businessman is to completely own their market. Google, he claims, is a “good monopoly” because it keeps pumping out fresh ideas. But were it to sit idle, and prevent a new crop of entrepreneurs from innovating, it would be acceptable for the government to step in and break it up. >From this vantage point, government is not so much the harbinger of evil as an ineffective nuisance, only to be invoked when businesses lose their way in advancing society. Indeed, to give you an idea of just how little faith Thiel has in the government, I asked him what he would do as president. For a man who invests in cures for aging <http://www.businessinsider.com/ellison-thiel-also-trying-to-cure-death-2013-9>, his answer was surprisingly unambitious. “There’s always questions as to what you could do within the limits of the possible in our political system,” he mulls. “I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit in our government and we need to ask how the government can do more with less.” Instead, ever the optimist, Thiel wants us all to set our eye on the prize: “I think it would be good for us to realize that we live in an very imperfect world and to never give up the dream of perfecting it.” > > I am pessimistic enough to see Obama bringing on an attack on the US, > because, demoralizing the EU now seems unnecessary. A successful attack on > the US could have huge pay offs (logically speaking) for the attacker. Less > so, for leveling Marseilles, or Utrecht. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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