[From Bill Powers (2008.09.20.1112 M<DT)]
Rick Marken (2008.09.20.0900) --
> Bill Powers (2008.09.20.0223 MDT )--
> I agree that Rick's post sounded just like John McCain's attack ads
This is like the MSM, in their faux efforts to appear fair, saying
that _both_ candidates have gone negative. Spare me!
I don't know what MSM is. Probably should. But I have no patience with conflicts any more, and generally just ignore what they're about. They don't get anyone anywhere until they escalate to deadliness, and then one side loses or is dead. The last one standing wins, and then asks in stupid bewilderment, "Where did everybody go?" Once you understand what a conflict is, it's just dumb to choose to be part of one.
That's not the only problem; even if everyone were noble and
cooperative you would still need rules and regulations (blueprints) so
that people could successfully coordinate their efforts.
Yes, but if people try to arrive at successful cooperation by squabbling over the right way to do it, they will never get there.
I see building and maintaining a successful economy as being similar to
building and maintaining any complex social organization, like IBM
Corporation. It's kind of amazing to me that the same people who
understand the need for competent management to make a organization
like IBM function properly are often those who think the much more
complex social organization called an economy will take care of itself
if everyone were just left alone to pursue their own "self interest".
That is a truly beautiful point. If the market economy is so great, why don't corporations just leave the running of the company up to a free market? What's with this CEO business, and managers, and foremen? We don't need a company government telling people what they can and can't do; let them work it out for themselves. The invisible hand of supply and demand will magically make sure that this is the best of all possible companies.
> If it weren't for the raptors among us, the believers in a free market, or
> freedom in general, would have brought the world to peace and prosperity
> long ago.
I disagree. I think that even without raptors you would still need
rules and guidelines so that the participants in the economy (the
"employees") know their job.
Yes, I agree about the rules and guidelines. You can't play any game without both. But the raptors are the ones who don't care about the economy or the job or the company, or playing the same game as everyone else. The only rules they're interested in are the ones that favor them over others. My queen can take your queen, but your queen can't take my queen. Wanna play?
I think, for example, that there must be rules about paying taxes since taxes are an investment in the common infrastructure (education, healthcare, transportation, R&D etc) that makes an economy work best for everyone. Without such rules, some might tithe and others might not, not because some people are good and some bad, but simply because there are no plans for common investment in the infrastructure.
Right, but some rules need enforcement and some don't. You can't make a golfer penalize himself for grounding his club in a sand trap, but if he doesn't, he isn't playing golf and nobody will pay any attention to his score. That's different from rules about not hitting other golfers over the head with a driver. People who want a workable economy would devise rules designed to make it run properly, but not with the idea that people will want to violate them. Just tell me which side of the road you people drive on, and I'll comply. That kind of rule is not born of conflict between people. Taxes are just a Home Owners' Association fee, which you pay if you want your snow removed, your building painted, and the grass cut.
Of course, "free market" thinking imagines that all this infrastructure development will magically happen on it's own of people are left to their own devices; taxes are seen as a burden on individual freedom rather than an investment in common infrastructure. The fact that it doesn't work that way is, I think, the reason why data is of so little interest to free marketers.
I don't want to talk about "free marketers" or what "they" think about data. You don't know what "they" think and neither do I. You're making up a bogeyman so you can stomp on it. That's exercising the wrong end of your body.
Best,
Bill P.
'