The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty (2010)

Re:The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty (2010) by evanpw on Sunday July 17, 2016 @02:21PM (#12111121)

This is very similar to an argument that libertarians make about their opponents. As long as the government is made up of benevolent geniuses with perfect information about every individual citizen, then socialism is a great idea. In reality, individual preferences are unknowable, and government workers are fallible and have motivations of their own.

In reality, neither utopia is particularly achievable in the world as it currently is, but that doesn't mean that incremental steps in one direction or the other can't improve the situation.

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Re:The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty (2010) by safeignorance on Sunday July 17, 2016 @02:34PM (#12111173)

I'd guess very few of libertarianism's opponents believe in socialist utopias, and what the article suggests is about as far from an incremental step and one can possibly get...

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Re:The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty (2010) by evanpw on Sunday July 17, 2016 @03:39PM (#12111434)

> I'd guess very few of libertarianism's opponents believe in socialist utopias

Just as most libertarians are not anarcho-capitalists. My point is that you don't need to believe in the utopia (in either direction) to believe that a smaller move would be positive.

> what the article suggests is about as far from an incremental step and one can possibly get...

In terms of total impact, drastically changing the rules in a region where no one currently lives could certainly be a smaller step than slightly changing the rules for millions of people, which is what most political arguments are about.

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