Comments on: The United States: An Authoritarian Oligarchy?

By: The Liberty Papers»Blog Archive » Why progressives really aren’t

The Liberty Papers»Blog Archive » Why progressives really aren’t — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:36:43 +0000

[...] In a similar vein, Eric points out that free people participating in free markets is a large part of the solution to the problems attendant to disparate socioeconomic classes. In fact, this continuous characterization of upper, middle and lower class is part of the problem. Our economic system is one of the most classless in the world, although the imposition of socialist and quasi-socialist government programs is having the effect of stratifying the classes more and more firmly. [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:48:24 +0000

I was talking to my dad the other day about this topic. He says, and I tend to agree with him, the problem is that there is no frontier. There’s no place to go if you don’t like how things are here. Our only hope is space. And if the authoritarians win completely before we get to space, heaven help the human race. All of Earth, today, is in the boat that Europe was in 1600. If we can establish a colony at the space equivalent of Plymouth Rock, we will be in the position Europe was in 1625. Hope will be rekindled, and the knowledge that we have another choice.

By: Stephen Macklin

Stephen Macklin — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:42:11 +0000

I have always liked the analogy that poverty is like a toothache and welfare is tylenol. It makes the pain go away but does nothing to heal the tooth, which eventually rots completely.

I think the problem is where and how to start. How do you generate a rebirth of personal responsibility without first reforming government to eliminate the programs that kill self-reliance? And conversely how do you reform government to eliminate the programs that kill self-reliance without first generating a rebirth of personal responsibility?

I sometimes wonder if the only way to fix the mess isn’t to do it while picking up the pieces when the current system colapses.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 19:33:19 +0000

I agree, having them read the Constitution would be excellent, but they MUST understand it. I know far too many people at my university who can rattle off the Bill of Rights like it is nothing, who apparently comprehend both the 9th and 10th Amendments, yet who see nothing wrong with Roe v. Wade. How they make that jump in logic, I’m not entirely sure, but anyway, I’m pretty sure that these kind of people are in the minority, and, we could argue, are the “enemy.”

It’s far more important to sway the “neutrals” to our side; the people who have never even understood or tried to read the Constitution.