Quote:
Originally posted by roachboy
i argued earlier in the thread that perhaps--just perhaps--the discussion could be made more interesting if folk tried to step a little bit back from the religious adherence to neoclassical economic theory and think....
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What is bothering you is that we do think. It is not a religion. The problem with expecting the government to run our lives and shield us from the risk of our decisions is that it runs contrary to the way people are naturally wired. Liberty is not a value because it is an abstract. The drive to be an independent individual is inherent in all of us.
This leads me to why we have so much apathy and disassociation in society today. The government expects us to act in a contrary fashion to our natural hierarchy of values. A rational person values first and foremost himself and those he loves - extending outward in concentric circles of friends, acquaintances etc. He would rather use his resources to further the well-being of those closest to him. What does the government do - takes from him first an enormous portion of his income to serve complete strangers, even when doing so harms him and his family. No wonder we have such cognitive dissonance infecting our culture.