snitko

44 ms·

391.
by snitko 13y ago
So if your fellow citizen disagrees with you on what's fair, would you personally visit his house and extract that 50% out of his pocket?
392.
by snitko 13y ago
Fairness and force are concepts. Stealing is action. I hope you can see why the latter is much easier to define than the former.
393.
by snitko 13y ago
Most people rejected the idea that slavery is a bad thing for the most of human history. The problem with the idea that one's success somehow lies on the shoulders of the rest of the society (and therefore one is forever in debt to it,
394.
by snitko 13y ago
And who's to say what's fair? People keep talking about fairness, but the problem is that it's always the other guy or some corporation who's being unfair. It's never me. I'd say it is completely unfair that a
395.
by snitko 13y ago
The question people should be asking is not whose income grows and who gains the most. To me, the only relevant question is: did this person stole the money or made it honestly? If he stole it, then he should be in jail. If he didn't,
396.
by snitko 13y ago
Keep paying them to do that. Taxes are a good thing, after all: governments also build roads and help the poor - which no one else can do.
397.
by snitko 13y ago
It's like going back to the 17-th century and saying, "surely, if a society could function without slaves, we would've seen an example somewhere". The thing is, I realize a lot of people are not ready to be unplugged. Th
398.
by snitko 13y ago
Mongols were a proto-state. The fact they didn't have a permanent territory means nothing. They had an hierarchical structure. The only thing that was different was that other "states" realized it would actually be much profi
399.
by snitko 13y ago
I would like to point everyone's attention to the fact that the difficulty of buying bitcoins has to do with the current banking system and regulations, not with Bitcoin itself. If you could buy bitcoins by swiping your card, its price
400.
by snitko 13y ago
How can it be easier to control an entity that has a monopoly over force and that requires you to convince 1 million people instead of 100 for any changes to happen? Also, ruled by reason, really? Same reason that helped it decide to spy on
401.
by snitko 13y ago
So wouldn't it be much easier to convince 100 people to act against your local warlord than 1 million people to act against the global warlord?
402.
by snitko 13y ago
So why is there no utopia in North Korea and Cuba and Iran? Very strong governments there.
403.
by snitko 13y ago
Russia in the 90s wasn't absence of government. It was a curious mix of government and bandits, which, of course, continued into our days. Except that now it's actually much easier to identify the bad guys: they are wearing a unif
404.
by snitko 13y ago
Can you summon enough amount of army to battle the global warlord which is the government?
405.
by snitko 13y ago
So would the same thing happen in the US if people woke up tomorrow and realized there is no government and they don't need one? Because, you see, a weak/strong government says nothing about the well being of the people. You can h
406.
by snitko 13y ago
Price is subjective and only depends on your action. If you take a deal, it means you are satisfied with the price. There is no real price. I'm pretty sure a large portion of society would bet against you if you decided to kill an 8 ye
407.
by snitko 13y ago
If he tells you to fuck off, there are numerous ways to get back at him. In the real world, you'd call your protection agency, which would in turn call his protection agency and they would settle the dispute for you (without actually g
408.
by snitko 13y ago
You can't and it's precisely because government sets the rules where you can lay wires and which frequencies you can use. In Russia, this hasn't gone beyond that yet, that's why the prices are that low. In other countrie
409.
by snitko 13y ago
What you don't see here is that if you have a government, it inevitably imposes the rules the majority agree with upon the minority who disagree. There is no way for the minority to do anything but wait until the next election and hope
410.
by snitko 13y ago
Of course they wouldn't. And why do you think that is? It's because they don't get good value for their money. People still need schools, right? Therefore, schools will be built. People still need roads, therefore roads will
411.
by snitko 13y ago
Like it was said in some comment below, there is no shortage of ideas of how a society would work in the absence of government. Yet people mostly ignore them and ask the same questions again and again, not even willing to hear the answer. I
412.
by snitko 13y ago
You see, I live in Russia. Historically, up until recently, the telecom was a very unregulated industry. Government just didn't care enough. So do you know what am I paying for a 100Mbps connection and unlimited traffic? $10/mo. D
413.
by snitko 13y ago
> Really? Because the prevailing opinion with people I speak to is that politicians are bastards, and that's replicated here. In fact, politicians are very rarely looked at in a good light. People dislike what we have! Well, they
414.
by snitko 13y ago
Why do you need to "run a country"? What does it really mean? What is it about a government that only it can do certain things, while private enterprises and persons are claimed to be incapable of accomplishing it? But the fundame
415.
by snitko 13y ago
> I'd see taxes more like calling in a debt. It costs money to live here, you have to pay for that. What do you mean costs money to live here? I already pay my rent and utilities. When I walk or drive on public roads, it is only b
416.
by snitko 13y ago
Furthermore, I think what you're doing here (and I say this only because I used to do the same, no disrespect) is trying to find an excuse to make the system look acceptable, with a potential to become better. That way, you wouldn&#x27
417.
by snitko 13y ago
The thing to look at is incentives. What behavior the system incentivizes? People are elected for some n years and it is very difficult to fire them even if they don't keep their promises and are doing a crappy job. More importantly, t
418.
by snitko 13y ago
Sometimes people take The Matrix quite literally, while it is actually a very good metaphor for government and democracy. Morpheus hints at this very transparently in a couple of monologues: Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all ar
419.
by snitko 13y ago
The second half of the 19th century the US was in deflation, yet economy boomed and unemployment wasn't high at all.
420.
by snitko 13y ago
Liquid store of value. USD is liquid, but inflationary. Gold is a good store of value, but you can't really spend it like you can spend Bitcoin.

More ›