Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Sangmo" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Qbasic Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 04:51:00 +1100 Lines: 89 Message-ID: References: <20160229002801@news.eternal-september.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net j7H/LkzKm6rjiIRlliBffgLUfjyHP/C+5Lp7Nrh3bAeS81Cas= Cancel-Lock: sha1:Ok0wV9YJrBiLRMZ189il7ujyogc= In-Reply-To: X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 14.0.8117.416 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V14.0.8117.416 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:160344 "Morten Reistad" wrote in message news:u3sdqc-sc5.ln1@sambook.reistad.name... > In article , > Dave Garland wrote: >>On 2/28/2016 11:35 PM, Roger Blake wrote: >>> On 2016-02-29, Dave Garland wrote: >>>> C'mon Roger, you're just thinking about the military. >>> >>> Who commands the military? How many people were traumatized, maimed, >>> butchered, and/or killed in Vietnam? Iraq? Who was brought to justice >>> for initiating those criminal acts? (None, of course. And that is only >>> two examples.) The State leaves a trail of bloody, beaten corpses in >>> its wake as matter of course. (Would you tolerate this from any >>> privately-owned company, no matter what services it provided?) >>> >>> Government at all levels has indulged in death, destruction, and >>> plunder. >>> Hell, people have been brutalized and even killed over routine traffic >>> stops because they didn't submit fast enough to a cop's author-itay. >>> >>> As far as government is concerned THEY OWN YOU. Your life and your >>> property >>> are theirs to dispose of as they see fit. If you don't like it and offer >>> resistance they will cage you or kill you. Bottom line. >>> >>That is all true. >> >>But without government, you have no rights, no property, no >>corporations, no constitutions, no ownership, other than what you can >>secure and hold by your own hand. And it likely won't be much, or for >>long. >> >>We're a social species. And once there are more than a handful of us, >>that seems to imply government, of one form or another, whether based >>on nation-states or something else.. > > The state is the legal monopoly on physical force. That is the > common definition. This implies that it is ruled by law, and that > it can outgun anyone else on it's territory. > > This means that it needs courts, police and a military force. It may > also have civil servants, but that is technically optional. > > That is it. > > However, we have come to the conclusion that the state can operate > a lot of stuff more efficiently than a set of private persons or > corporations, or that it can regulate the private persons/corporations > to do things more sensibly. Like the FAA regulates air safety, and > the FCC regulates air frequencies. Both of these would be a likely > chaos if left totally to private enterprise. > > But the argument does not stop there. Even health can be regulated > and/or provided a lot more efficiently by private enterprise. Take > France, the home of "dirigism", vs the US. France pays less than half > of what the US pays per person in health expenditures, and lands > as the top nation in the world regarding the quality of that health > privisioning, whereas the US lands as 33rd or something like that. > > Yes, this payment is coerced from the people in the form of > taxes, but it is an expense you really cannot avoid and still live > a good life; so it is generally deemed as worthwhile. > > And we haven't had a big epidemic since 1920; where the whole > society had to stand up as one. I fear for the US when (not if) > this happens next. I don’t. I believe the US would handle that well and I don’t believe it is a when (not if) either now that we understand how to identify and handle those so well now. If for example ebola had happened in the US it would have been handled much more effectively than it was in Africa. > We have also identified roads and partly rail as natural for > state involvement. There are a lot of other such areas, but e.g. > national grids for electricty and gas can be kept private and > regulated strongly, and kept operationally integrated threreby. > > But we must watch out; the tax tends to stifle everything when > it approaches 50%. I pay 32%, plus a 25% VAT; which gives 49% > total. The government spending as a part of GDP is 46%. The > US is around 40, varying by nearly 10% by state or local location. But has one of the lowest tax as a percentage of GDP in the entire world of countries providing a high level of government services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP