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From: trc@houti.UUCP (T.CRAVER)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: a full glass of rationality, please
Message-ID: <387@houti.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Aug-83 12:43:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: houti.387
Posted: Tue Aug 16 12:43:04 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Aug-83 21:58:42 EDT
Lines: 35

Response to Randy Haskins:

I believe that you are mistaking the condition of rationality for the
capability to be rational.  Failing to be 100% rational does not mean
that someone is irrational - any more than failing to be 100% irrational
means that someone is rational.  Think of "rationality" as a measurable
quantity - like "fullness of a glass".  A glass can only be so full,
before it is called "completely full" - but that does not mean it
is called empty if it is less than full. 

Objectivism holds continuous rationality to be an achievable ideal, but
does not ignore the fact that people are not always rational.

Laissez-faire capitalism would no more cause cancer than mothers do -
after all, its mommy that buys the PJ's and makes the kids wear them
to bed.  Should mothers be banned?  No, in fact, any reasonable mother
will simply refuse to buy cancer causing pajamas - which is also the
answer to your question "So what is the consumers recourse?".  And
in the long-run, (with sufficient information - as from "Consumer 
Reports") customers might suspect the company, with the probable result
that the company would fold, and other companies will be more careful.

Laissez-faire capitalism will *work* even if only a minority of people
are rational - so long as the others are not given power to interfere 
with the rational minority.  However, if a vast majority accept irrational
ideas, laissez-faire will not be allowed to *survive* long - because under it, 
those who are rational will benefit greatly, while those that are less rational 
will benefit less (quantitatively - but as "return on investment of thought", 
they get a partially free ride from the more rational").  Since the irrational
people do not understand the source of the benefits gained, they will be
susceptible ot the idea that they have somehow been unfairly exploited.  Of 
course, the more rational the people, the better the system works.

	Tom Craver
	houti!trc