Re:Is Bitcoin the Future of Money?
by vertex-four on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @03:16PM
(#7706512)
Some things are necessities for a stable, non-violent civilisation where everybody can live in relative peace. Cars are not included in that. Shelter is, but only a minimum level of shelter is necessary, and anything above that is discretionary spending, which I have no real problem with so long as it doesn't negatively affect others.
Thank you for your statement that you literally could not care less about how people with less money than you are treated.
I've been in a country where the vast majority of businesses never touch Government red tape. They don't pay taxes, the Government doesn't know they exist. Anyone who owns property could easily start up such a business. It still has massive poverty issues. I've lived there for years. I never want to go back. It would be unsafe for me to go back; due to a medical condition that I have, it is very likely that I would be discriminated against, and very possibly raped, with no recourse. And it'd be worse for a native.
If you truly wanted equality, you'd be arguing for lesser or no government intervention into the economy, so that people could easily and freely start businesses without the need to acquire licences and red tape. In the words of Milton Friedman:
"If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, itβs exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that [free market]. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system."