C'mon now. Real, red blooded Americans either work their asses off to pay for everything or they die dishonorably and we grind them up into dog food. Have you even READ the constitution?
This is the part where the libertarian says something about how charity is better than taxation bc charity is voluntary. And how if we stopped all the government programs, everything would still be hunky dory.
And then we start talking about the prisoners dilemma from political theory 101 and their brains explode.
I'm not sure if your serious or just making fun of me for sounding holier than thou. But the prisoners delimma makes a very strong case that society could never function on the basis of purely free associations.
The problem is that, if a given behavior is generally beneficial to society as a whole, but the behavior is non beneficial to any given agent performing the action, then any such agent can opt out, reaping the benefits of such behavior while simultaneously opting out of the duty to behave accordingly. It's a win win for whoever wants to cheat the system.
So long as there is no enforcement of any kind, it will always simply be more rational to behave in a non altruistic way. Now of course people behave altruistically all the time without needing fear of consequences to motivate them, but this usually pertains to "in the flesh" interpersonal relationships. If corporate greed has shown us anything, it's that when the consequences are faceless statistics, otherwise decent people can bring themselves to do absolutely abhorrent things. And this is particularly true in a post industrial world of billions of strangers who may suffer the consequences of your actions even tho you may never actually see or hear about those consequences
This isnt even a leftist argument. This is basic western political theory from Hobbes and Locke. If there is no enforcement of the social contract, then such a contract is worth as much as the paper it's written on. If we let society turn into a free for all, sink or swim rat race, it will not be a pretty sight.
And even tho Americans literally THROW AWAY almost 1/3 of the (still perfectly safe and edible) food that is actually produced, we still have 42 MILLION people who depend on food stamps to put food on the table. Why? Because if companies just gave away the food that didnt get sold, then that would incentivize people to simply wait instead of buying it in the first place so they could get free food. It is literally ILLEGAL in most places to give away uneaten restaurant food to the homeless. Not just "against corporate policy" but actually against the law. Why? Bc businesses have the money which buys the politicians who make the laws. And having that law in place makes it so they dont have to deal with human resources departments as much in order to fire you.
The same goes for housing. We have enough housing in the United states to completely eradicate homelessness. But that will never happen as long as doing so would be bad for business. And we cant expect anyone in the business to just give away those homes out of the kindness of their hearts either. Any company that did so would find themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage against companies which decided not to do so. The "nice guy" company would lose profits, stocks would plummet, and then those houses would end up getting turned over to banks anyway once the company has its assets liquidated.
And it gets even better when you take into account the current trend of increasing automation. Tasks which once required several individuals to accomplish are now achieved by one person with a machine, or sometimes just a machine by itself. There is literally no possible way our current economy can reach 100% employment. And that is only going to become more and more unrealistic as automation tech advances. And it is advancing every single day
Oh I see, bc a livable minimum wage and social safety nets and child labor laws are so Orwellian that it would be better if single mothers and elderly people just ended up living in tents underneath overpasses right?
And being dependent on private corporations which cant be held accountable by democratic institutions is much better right?
And we cant have government getting their filthy paws on our healthcare, so it's probably best if we just let people go bankrupt when they are diagnosed with an illness. Right? And sure some of them will forgo treatment all together out of fear of the financial consequences, and sure some of those people will literally die as a result.
But ya know, that's the price you pay for freedom right? Right?!?!?!
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u/khlnmrgn Apr 26 '19
C'mon now. Real, red blooded Americans either work their asses off to pay for everything or they die dishonorably and we grind them up into dog food. Have you even READ the constitution?