Sasan Sadat-Sharifi wrote: > --- In [email protected], Jon Roland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> The basic problem arises from overconsumption. We are living beyond >> our means. >> > > Is that really the root of the financial crisis? Couldn't it be that > the root problem is a parasitical Government that confiscates half the > fruits of your labor and then wrecks the economy by offering you > artificially-available loans to stay above the poverty line? > Yes. In this context government services are just one kind of consumption, and we are overconsuming them as well. > >> For a vision of things to >> come, examine the favellas of Brazil or similar settlements in >> other countries. (Hint: No housing codes or zoning.) >> > > Are you really implying that crime-ridden slums are caused by a lack > of zoning and housing ordinances? Seriously??? > Of course not. Just a way to express the fact that the standard of living (consumption) will be much lower than what people are used to. > Isn't the POVERTY caused by economic interventions a huge factor? What > about the GANG VIOLENCE caused by the international Drug War? > No, poverty is the natural default state of human affairs. Government interventions generally make markets less efficient, beyond a minimum level needed to make them possible at all. Gang violence is mainly the result of a failure of government services, combined with overpopulation, undereducation, underemployment, and a host of factors, many of the most important of which have little to do with government. Humans are naturally disposed to violence if they are not raised properly. What we have is a culture of poverty and violence because we have allowed too many people to be raised as barbarians.
-- Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------------
