Announcement

Collapse

Forum Rules (Everyone Must Read!!!)

1] What you CAN NOT post.

You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this forum to post any material which is:
- abusive
- vulgar
- hateful
- harassing
- personal attacks
- obscene

You also may not:
- post images that are too large (max is 500*500px)
- post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or cited properly.
- post in UPPER CASE, which is considered yelling
- post messages which insult the Armenians, Armenian culture, traditions, etc
- post racist or other intentionally insensitive material that insults or attacks another culture (including Turks)

The Ankap thread is excluded from the strict rules because that place is more relaxed and you can vent and engage in light insults and humor. Notice it's not a blank ticket, but just a place to vent. If you go into the Ankap thread, you enter at your own risk of being clowned on.
What you PROBABLY SHOULD NOT post...
Do not post information that you will regret putting out in public. This site comes up on Google, is cached, and all of that, so be aware of that as you post. Do not ask the staff to go through and delete things that you regret making available on the web for all to see because we will not do it. Think before you post!


2] Use descriptive subject lines & research your post. This means use the SEARCH.

This reduces the chances of double-posting and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Using the search function will identify existing threads on the topic so we do not have multiple threads on the same topic.

3] Keep the focus.

Each forum has a focus on a certain topic. Questions outside the scope of a certain forum will either be moved to the appropriate forum, closed, or simply be deleted. Please post your topic in the most appropriate forum. Users that keep doing this will be warned, then banned.

4] Behave as you would in a public location.

This forum is no different than a public place. Behave yourself and act like a decent human being (i.e. be respectful). If you're unable to do so, you're not welcome here and will be made to leave.

5] Respect the authority of moderators/admins.

Public discussions of moderator/admin actions are not allowed on the forum. It is also prohibited to protest moderator actions in titles, avatars, and signatures. If you don't like something that a moderator did, PM or email the moderator and try your best to resolve the problem or difference in private.

6] Promotion of sites or products is not permitted.

Advertisements are not allowed in this venue. No blatant advertising or solicitations of or for business is prohibited.
This includes, but not limited to, personal resumes and links to products or
services with which the poster is affiliated, whether or not a fee is charged
for the product or service. Spamming, in which a user posts the same message repeatedly, is also prohibited.

7] We retain the right to remove any posts and/or Members for any reason, without prior notice.


- PLEASE READ -

Members are welcome to read posts and though we encourage your active participation in the forum, it is not required. If you do participate by posting, however, we expect that on the whole you contribute something to the forum. This means that the bulk of your posts should not be in "fun" threads (e.g. Ankap, Keep & Kill, This or That, etc.). Further, while occasionally it is appropriate to simply voice your agreement or approval, not all of your posts should be of this variety: "LOL Member213!" "I agree."
If it is evident that a member is simply posting for the sake of posting, they will be removed.


8] These Rules & Guidelines may be amended at any time. (last update September 17, 2009)

If you believe an individual is repeatedly breaking the rules, please report to admin/moderator.
See more
See less

Government Regulation: Good or Bad?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Government Regulation: Good or Bad?

    Some Further Thoughts on Government Regulation

    by Tibor R. Machan



    In several forums, including one long book, Private Rights and Public Illusions (The Independent Institute, 1995), I have argued that government regulation is unjust, a policy unbecoming of a free society. Government regulation is a form of prior restraint, meaning, the legal authorities take aggressive action against citizens before they have done anything that deserves such action.

    A principle of justice is that unless one has acted aggressively toward others, or there is extremely good evidence that one is about to do so, no one may restrain one from doing what one wants. No one is authorized to rule another unless this other has taken actions that are themselves an attempt to rule others. Or, as Abraham Lincoln put it, "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent." (Indeed, as far back as ancient Greece, some have recognized this point – see, for example, Alcibiades’ debate with Pericles in Xenophan’s Memorabilia where Alcibiades shows that legal measures that involve coercion are not in fact laws at all.)

    There are those who would reply that government regulation is, in fact, consented to by way of the electoral process, but this is sophistry. The electoral process must conform to due process, not override it, since none of us is authorized to vote other people into servitude. We may vote on who should administer the laws but not on what laws we must live by; that’s a matter of argument and must evolve through the common law, not via the vote. That is why a lynch mob is immoral and unjust – it aims to trump justice, of which due process is a crucial element.

    Since many people realize that others really have no moral authority to govern them without their consent, as well as that government regulations amount to just such "governance," there are massive efforts to evade or circumvent such regulations. Arguably the huge legal departments in major corporations are part of such efforts. The motivation for this is very much akin to what underlies the existence of black markets or smuggling operations – people do not believe that bans on the production and sale of various goods and services is morally justified, so they work diligently and cleverly to dodge such bans.

    This is so even if what’s banned is itself unsavory, shameful – for example, prostitution or mindless gambling. What they do know, at least tacitly, is that there is something radically wrong about governmental efforts to suppress such trade. It is a bit like when we know that police brutality is wrong even if we disapprove of the person who is its target, or when we know that beating someone up for having insulted another is going way beyond any kind of permissible response.

    So, in business it is quite possible that a reason why folks so often run afoul of "the law" – à la Martha Stewart, for instance – is that much of the law bearing on them is understood by them as harassment, nothing to do with crime or civil order. All those government regulations in banking, manufacture, marketing, sales, and so forth impose burdens on professionals, what with all the rules, fines, and even prison sentences administered not for having violated someone’s rights but merely for having the capacity to do so – they might hurt someone, they might injure someone, they might defraud someone, although they haven’t done so at all. Government regulation is nearly all precautionary, preventive, yet in the criminal law that’s banned, deemed a violation of due process. Only if someone has violated – or is very likely to violate – another’s rights, may law enforcement go into action against that individual.

    So, one result of this precautionary nature of government regulation is that those covered by it work very hard to evade them. That’s so, arguably, because many people do not really believe the regulations are just and thus consider them an imposition they should not suffer. No, they probably haven’t some coherent, fully worked out idea about this; but in their guts, as it were, they sense confidently enough that there is something amiss here. And this leads to their treating not just government regulations but nearly all laws as suspect, perhaps not really deserving of compliance.
    Achkerov kute.

  • #2
    This one is sitting so lonely and cold. It is wondering whether someone will finally visit and join this rally of rebelling against the government regulation. It hopes for the awakening of the masses that are so oblivious to the harshness of reality. However, no one seems to come around and silence fills the blue corners of this thread, like the shadow of darkness that hangs above the boring Kentucky. The wind gushes, shattering it's dismal walls, diving it into despair. Oh, how lonely is this thread, oh how it needs a companion or an argument, yet even crickets are reluctant to make their residence in this overly used topic.

    So it sits here lonely, bathing in its own validity calling out to the voices of reason....

    And the train of thoughts is heard echoing in the distance...


    ============

    The fate of Anon's Thread

    by Anileve

    Comment


    • #3
      There once was a mouse
      He couldn't do math or build his own house
      So he got on a forum
      Filled us with boredom
      Cried and complained
      So everybody ignored em
      He had thousands of posts and did nothing productive
      Being a waste of space he found so seductive

      He called them all dumb
      He called them all scum
      Why didn't they understand that the great mouse had come?
      He wanted to give the forumers an education
      But his thoughts were all an oversimplification


      Copyright Eggplant Inc.

      Comment

      Working...
      X