Vintage Erotica Forums - View Single Post - Current or modern politics in the United States

**Arturo2nd** · July 16th, 2017, 04:22 PM

Just a passing acknowledgement to profvolup. Emotionally and intellectually the Libertarian philosophy very much appeals to me. I am all for a limited government that keeps its nose out of people's personal lives and puts decision making and resources as close to the local level as possible.

Pragmatically I have issues. The first difficulty is that a large federal bureaucracy is already in place. The various interests served by the bureaucracy will fight tooth and nail not only to keep it in place, but expand it. Secondly, experience has shown that we cannot rely on individuals, companies, and corporations to behave with decency and in a socially responsible manner. We have an EPA because pollution had reached a crisis proportion by the 1960s. (China is laboring mightily to reverse pollution and environmental degradation. Enormous areas of Russia have been rendered toxic. So capitalism is not alone in dealing with this.) The international financial system nearly collapsed in 2008 after an orgy of fraud and greed. This was only the latest instance of a a confluence of greed and stupidity periodically crashing the system. Thus, it appears that a large regulatory framework is unavoidable.

Clearly our level of expenditure on Social Security and the medical entitlement programs is unsustainable. A debt crisis will impose reforms if the political will is not found for reform in the very near future. (Finding a way to stop spending an enormous amount of our GDP for mediocre healthcare outcomes would be a good start.) A collapse of the U.S. Treasury debt market will take the world economy with it. But I seriously doubt that it will result in less government intrusion and more personal freedom in the United States or its successor governments. This is definitely a time where I very much hope to be wrong though.

July 16th, 2017, 04:22 PM	#2771
Arturo2nd Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Oakland, California, United States. I have a beautful view of the BART tracks and I-980 Posts: 8,955 Thanks: 103,061 Thanked 151,625 Times in 8,946 Posts	I am a Closet Libertarian Just a passing acknowledgement to profvolup. Emotionally and intellectually the Libertarian philosophy very much appeals to me. I am all for a limited government that keeps its nose out of people's personal lives and puts decision making and resources as close to the local level as possible. Pragmatically I have issues. The first difficulty is that a large federal bureaucracy is already in place. The various interests served by the bureaucracy will fight tooth and nail not only to keep it in place, but expand it. Secondly, experience has shown that we cannot rely on individuals, companies, and corporations to behave with decency and in a socially responsible manner. We have an EPA because pollution had reached a crisis proportion by the 1960s. (China is laboring mightily to reverse pollution and environmental degradation. Enormous areas of Russia have been rendered toxic. So capitalism is not alone in dealing with this.) The international financial system nearly collapsed in 2008 after an orgy of fraud and greed. This was only the latest instance of a a confluence of greed and stupidity periodically crashing the system. Thus, it appears that a large regulatory framework is unavoidable. Clearly our level of expenditure on Social Security and the medical entitlement programs is unsustainable. A debt crisis will impose reforms if the political will is not found for reform in the very near future. (Finding a way to stop spending an enormous amount of our GDP for mediocre healthcare outcomes would be a good start.) A collapse of the U.S. Treasury debt market will take the world economy with it. But I seriously doubt that it will result in less government intrusion and more personal freedom in the United States or its successor governments. This is definitely a time where I very much hope to be wrong though.