Oh, sure! If you want to use as few words as possible. That's just not what Lj is for. I'd be using Twitter more if I were concise.
I love my $5 words.
I think one of my main points of contention with both philosophies would be: Socialism relies too much on the general goodness of peple in power to give and take only what needs to be moved for everyone to get a decent chance at happiness.
Libertarians either give too much credit to the general populous to make good decisions about charitable works, or (proving both previous points) don't care if anyone else gets a decent chance so long as no one interfers with what they see as their own opportunity.
In either case, I think we can balance a system that looks at the big picture and provides education, defense, healthcare and opportunity to everyone under its jursidiction with out revoking the right of people to speak, worship and even disagree with the system as they see fit.
One more thing I think I'd like to see more interest in: Does anyone else wonder how things would change if we we swap the budget for the State and Defense departments. Let's put more money into peace and diplomacy than war; more into building than distroying, and see if we don't get better results, huh?
As I recall, at the end of WWII, to punish the countries that grew into greedy expansionist monsters, the victors imposed upon them constitutional clauses which restricted their entire military structures to self-defense and policing only. In a lot of ways, I think every nation could benefit from this sort of stricture. In essence, it would be a return for the US to a pre-WWII footing. We've got the production capacity and capabilities to ramp up anytime there's something afoot that legitimately needs it, but the days of our dick measuring contests with the USSR are over.
Socialism and Communism didn't take into account the laziness inherent in human nature (or that absolute power corrupts absolutely), and libertarianism fails to place any checks on the greed inherent in human nature. The extremes are flawed, but there are valuable pieces of them that could be used to assemble a more balanced system that both prevents greed run amok (which, incidentally, is what's fueling this lovely little recession we're all enjoying) and the lack of initiative that is seen in the more communal states.
And as far as brevity goes, I think I got closer to the spirit of LJ this time. ;)
I love my $5 words.
I think one of my main points of contention with both philosophies would be: Socialism relies too much on the general goodness of peple in power to give and take only what needs to be moved for everyone to get a decent chance at happiness.
Libertarians either give too much credit to the general populous to make good decisions about charitable works, or (proving both previous points) don't care if anyone else gets a decent chance so long as no one interfers with what they see as their own opportunity.
In either case, I think we can balance a system that looks at the big picture and provides education, defense, healthcare and opportunity to everyone under its jursidiction with out revoking the right of people to speak, worship and even disagree with the system as they see fit.
One more thing I think I'd like to see more interest in: Does anyone else wonder how things would change if we we swap the budget for the State and Defense departments. Let's put more money into peace and diplomacy than war; more into building than distroying, and see if we don't get better results, huh?
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Socialism and Communism didn't take into account the laziness inherent in human nature (or that absolute power corrupts absolutely), and libertarianism fails to place any checks on the greed inherent in human nature. The extremes are flawed, but there are valuable pieces of them that could be used to assemble a more balanced system that both prevents greed run amok (which, incidentally, is what's fueling this lovely little recession we're all enjoying) and the lack of initiative that is seen in the more communal states.
And as far as brevity goes, I think I got closer to the spirit of LJ this time. ;)
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MBT
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