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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: What is "capitalism"? (Explorations of "self-interest")
Message-ID: <231@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 13:23:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.231
Posted: Wed Jun 12 13:23:17 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Jun-85 02:33:24 EDT
References: <2876@sdcc3.UUCP> <2380026@acf4.UUCP> <298@spar.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
Lines: 45

> >>> 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

The individual allows a doctor, lawyer, accountant, et. al. to make decisions
for us, and does not sign away his right to make own decisions, should the
prescribed course of action seem foolish.  The individual can at any time
say, "Doctor, your treatment has made me much sicker than I was before.
I will go get another opinion."  The government requires all people to
abide by its decisions; does not allow the individual to withdraw (except
by suicide); and insists by your presence within their sovereignty that
you accept their decisions.  This defines the essential difference between
the voluntary delegating of decisionmaking to a doctor, and the involuntary
delegation of decisionmaking to a government.