[lbo-talk] Liberal Intellectuals and the Coordinator Class

Robert Wrubel bobwrubel at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 17 17:44:07 PDT 2007


By all means leave room for idleness. That's the necessary condition for art, philosophy, innovation, sports, philanthropy, education and internet forums --all important social goods. Bob W

--- John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


> Tayssir John Gabbour wrote:
> > I think your views are certainly conceivable. In
> fact, earlier I
> > suggested that your personal view of econ might
> result in two classes:
> > a working class and idle consumers. John Thornton
> seems to agree:
> >
> > "To directly answer Doug's question as posed
> to Bill: "do you
> > think a just society should allow some people
> to coast by on the
> > labor of others?" Of course! When my work
> allows others the
> > freedom to not work it maximizes my own
> freedom."
> >
> > Now, you clearly believe this arrangement would
> lead to far better
> > outcomes than other systems people here are
> interested in. Maybe,
> > maybe not. I think it's more decent than many
> systems, but certainly
> > not as desirable as others.
> >
> > Compare that to John Thorton's firm implication
> that most people on
> > LBO-talk offer arguments which are "incredibly
> weak and rooted in
> > irrational fear." (Except for you of course, as
> you agree with him.)
> >
> >
> > Tayssir
> Can you give me a reason for opposing an equal
> distribution of all
> income, after all needs have been met, that is not
> "incredibly weak and
> rooted in irrational fear"?
> I'd enjoy reading it.
> Your idea that there would come to be two classes, a
> working class and
> and idle class is based on what? The totally
> rational and not fear based
> belief that some huge segment of the population have
> absolutely no self
> esteem and no desire to do something meaningful so
> they would enjoy
> nothing better than to simply coast through life on
> someone else's back?
> They have no desire to be a contributing member of
> society except
> through coercion?
> I reject that thinking. Given the choice to
> voluntarily participate in
> whatever manner possible I believe most people will
> choose to find some
> manner in which to become contributing members of
> such a society. You
> believe they will not voluntarily do so and need to
> be coerced to
> participate meaningfully. Your vision of humanity as
> selfish free-riders
> is overly pessimistic and rooted in fear.
> This is not a blanket condemnation of all arguments
> on LBO as weak and
> rooted in fear only the arguments against equal
> remuneration as put
> forth to date.
>
> John Thornton
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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