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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Politics and Ethics--Socialism, Libertarianism, and Capitalism
Message-ID: <903@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 09:30:11 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.903
Posted: Tue Dec 17 09:30:11 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 21:52:31 EST
References: <1547@hound.UUCP> <4340017@csd2.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 31

In article <4340017@csd2.UUCP> sykora@csd2.UUCP (Michael Sykora) writes:
>>/* franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) /  6:55 pm  Dec 11, 1985 */
>>You talk about the individual good and the public good as though they were
>>different things.  The public good is just the aggregate measure of the
>>individual good.
>
>Can you provide an algorithm for determining this aggregate from the
>individual goods?  Note, the algorithm should include a means of determining
>what the individual goods are.

In practice, determining what the public good is is often quite difficult.
One must use such tools as judgement, compassion, and imagination.  Opinion
polls (including the formal ones called elections) are not worthless either.
The result is still imperfect.

>>A
>>libertarian system (which really is what you are advocating) recognizes
>>property rights as the sole form of rights recognized by the state.  This
>>choice of rights to be recognized needs explicit justification.
>
>Actually, it would include the rights to life and liberty also.

You're right.  I want to emphasize that the "liberty" here is a narrowly
defined thing, unlike the more common modern use of the word.  It means the
right to move freely in one's own and public property, and in others'
property subject only to the restraint of the owner.

I still haven't seen any justification for this choice.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108