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Originally posted by AThousandYoungMy main point is that there is little that is "free" about the free market. I think that that still stands. The choice between obedience and poverty is not really a choice.
No, if you don't follow it you're poor, and probably arrogant and/or lazy as well. If you then turn to a life of crime to help your poverty you're a criminal. If you turn to demanding welfare and the like you're a drain on society but not a criminal.
What do you think is the alternative to doing what people are willing to pay you for? If people a ...[text shortened]... n't willing to pay you, do you think it's honorable to get their money out of them anyway?
1) "What do you think is the alternative to doing what people are willing to pay you for?"
AN alternative is a well regulated capitalist system (similar to what we have now in most industrialized nations) in which what is necessary or important to society is provided, via tax revenue, even if no one would willingly pay for it. I'm sure that you are aware of the problems with an unregulated market (try drinking the water in China). I'm also sure you're aware of the the problems of a "free market" that does nothing to provide for the public welfare (travel back in time to 1919 and try sending your kids to school; retiring before you die; or see what happens if you get injured at work).
What free trade has the potential to do is allow companies to return to the types of business practices that they had prior to regulation by allowing them to do business in countries that can't afford to lose thair business by maintaining strict laws. If we allow free trade to be truly free, then this will inevitably lead to a level of exploitation that most people will find unacceptable.
2) "If people aren't willing to pay you, do you think it's honorable to get their money out of them anyway?"
There's nothing dishonorable about the tax system we have now, as long as it is fair and democratic. "No taxation without representation." It's hard to say that a tax system is unfair in a democracy with fair representation. If we vote for a politician who taxes us, then, in essence, we're taxing ourselves.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungATY--do you mean "follow the free matket" as keeping up with the matket--checking to see what is selling and what is tanking? Or do you mean "follow" in the sense of going wherever the jobs are?
No, if you don't follow it you're poor, and probably arrogant and/or lazy as well. If you then turn to a life of crime to help your poverty you're a criminal. If you turn to demanding welfare and the like you're a drain on society but not a criminal.
What do you think is the alternative to doing what people are willing to pay you for? If people a ...[text shortened]... n't willing to pay you, do you think it's honorable to get their money out of them anyway?
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Originally posted by PinkFloydGo where the jobs are. If you need money, then do work for someone who needs a worker. Don't demand that you get your choice of pay in your choice of field. That's arrogant and unrealistic.
ATY--do you mean "follow the free matket" as keeping up with the matket--checking to see what is selling and what is tanking? Or do you mean "follow" in the sense of going wherever the jobs are?