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From: baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: What is "capitalism"? (Explorations of "self-interest")
Message-ID: <298@spar.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Jun-85 16:28:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: spar.298
Posted: Fri Jun  7 16:28:18 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 03:18:38 EDT
References: <2876@sdcc3.UUCP> <2380026@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 34

>>> How can a relatively small number of people (i.e., the gov't.) know
>>> what's best for millions?  Moreover, how can anyone know what's best
>>> for anyone else?
>>						Mike Sykora
>>
>> By the same logic, how can everyone know what's best for *themselves*?
>>
>>						Baba
> 
> Because each person CAN know what he really wants, even tho he MAY
> not know.  Others can never KNOW what another wants, except if he/she
> communicates this to them.
> 
> Of course, it is arrogant and presumptuous to say "I know what's best
> for you," (except of course when dealing with your own young child),
> as well as a manifestation of a nauseating personal quality.
> 
> 						Mike Sykora

You weren't talking about what people *want*.  You were talking about
what is "best" for people.  I, for one, recognize a distinction between
the two in human affairs.  In a world populated with rational, omniscient 
beings, there would be none.

It is indeed arrogant to say "I know what's best for you".  It is also
arrogant to say "I know what's best for me".  If you acknowledge that a
young child does not understand his self-interest, where do you draw the
line?  At 8 years of age?  At 14?  At 21?  The fact of the matter is that
everyone has an incomplete understanding of their own self-interest.  And
sometimes other people really do know better than we what our self-interest
is in various particulars (doctors, lawyers, accountants, coaches, guides, 
etc.).  If this were not so, the issue would be a good deal more clear-cut.

						Baba