[Sosfbay-discuss] a voice I happened across

[Fred Duperrault]

"There is a general belief in the U.S. that you get the best approaches by
polling large groups of people. That is the basic idea of democracy. There
is also a general belief in the U.S. that society works well when
everybody acts in their own self-interest. That is the basic idea
of capitalism. Putting those two ideas together strikes me as rather
risky. How do we avoid mob rule in which the majority exercises their
self-interest as the expense of the minority? It seems that this classic
problem of democracy is being exacerbated by an increasing devotion
to capitalism.

"Similarly, many people today argue that the freer the market,
the better. But history shows clearly that a free market tends to
lead to oligopoly or monopoly. Thus, a truly free market is unstable;
you need outside intervention. Even Adam Smith saw this. Why has this
been forgotten?"

   -- Ian Lance Taylor


I'm just avoiding actual work this morning.  Taylor is most well known
for writing the Free Software Foundation's UUCP, a suite of network
utilities for networks that are disconnected most of the time.
Much of the world's email traveled over UUCP for several years,
including mine.  I switched from the corporate UUCP to Taylor's because
Taylor's was better.  The free software movement is full of classical
(small L) libertarians.

Cameron


Thanks, Cameron, for the "small L."

Fred

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