[craig] Actually, a voluntary market is the only kind of economic system in which a slave trade cannot exist, because (surprise!) slaves don't volunteer.
[Krimel] Cattle, carrots and Toyotas don't volunteer in a voluntary market either. A slave is a commodity not a participant in the free market any more that a bag of Doritos is a market participant. [Krimel] > It is clearly the role of government to establish such rules in-so- > far as they reflect the will of the people. [craig] It is clearly your idea of the role of government, but not the best role. Government should allow for voluntary ecomomic transactions, worker-controlled economies, communes, etc., the will of the people be damned. [Krimel] OK, I would agree that I think the "best" role of government is to express the will of the people. When it doesn't I agree with Jefferson: "...that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... > [Krimel] > Is any degree of "voluntary" sufficient to qualify a transaction as > "moral"? [craig] Generally, voluntariness is not SUFFICIENT for an economic transaction to be moral, but it is NECESSARY. [Krimel] I will repeat what I wrote early. These are not voluntary transactions and they are moral. My point being that voluntariness is NOT necessary for a transaction to be moral. Slavery involved economic transactions that were not voluntary but were considered moral and were sanctioned by the constitution. Imminent domain transactions are sometimes involuntary but they are legal and moral. Taxation is only voluntary to the extent that I have explained to Platt that it is. And what do you mean by voluntary? I have to buy food. I have to buy gasoline. The cable company, the telephone company, the electric company and the water and sewer systems are all monopolies where I live. I can "choose" to do without but that is not much range of option. Again I ask, is any degree of "voluntary" sufficient to qualify a transaction as "moral"? I would add that morality has very little to do with a great many economic transactions. In fact immorality can be a sufficient cause for a price increase. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
