4 ms·

The Act will be enforced against that that the EU find pesky. It's a great big hammer.

• psd1 2y ago
  There's a Franklin quote that embodies a recurring theme on HN: > any society that will give up a little liberty to gain a little security deserves neither and will lose both But Franklin lived in a pre-industrial society. He saw two sides in the balance: citizens vs government. Corporations, such as they were to that date, were in check to the throne. Here's a reformulation for the internet age: > Any society that will not give up any liberty to the government will instead give up liberty to people like Zuckerberg
  • p_l 2y ago
    And remember that the liberty Franklin talks about is the liberty of the government established by the people to tax private entity, and the "little security" is lump sum payments (as replacement for tax) from the entity that was to be taxed to be put for purpose of securing the governed area
    • psd1 2y ago
      That's context that I had no idea about, that changes the meaning. I apologise to Franklin for misrepresenting him. I still argue that a traditional libertarian attitude - by which I mean viewing the balance between govt and citizenry as a zero-sum game - as leaving the flank wide open. It's a three-body problem, and government and corporations are closer natural allies than the citizenry is with either.