Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site acf4.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!acf4!mms1646 From: mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Libertarianism and the Police Message-ID: <1340242@acf4.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 18:07:00 EDT Article-I.D.: acf4.1340242 Posted: Fri Jun 28 18:07:00 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 08:12:19 EDT References: <7800338@inmet.UUCP> Organization: New York University Lines: 37 /* mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) / 2:43 pm Jun 23, 1985 */ >People tend to believe that >what someone tells them is the truth, if they are told often enough. Ultimately, people are going to have to be responsible for their own decisions. Of course, fraud such as this should be illegal. I suspect that before government regulation there was little enforcement, and that that was the problem. >You get enough scantily clad girls dancing around and singing "At Ford, >quality is job one", and people begin to believe it. Better to have >some laws that are enforced, to make sure quality IS job one before they >advertise it. Private quality-testing groups are great, for those with >the sense to take advantage of them, and the time to do so. So everyone else has to pay for their stupidity thru higher produuct costs. >Unfortunately, >we don't all have the time to research each purchase, even if we might >have the sense to want to. That is precisely why there are such organizations as CU. >So we like to be able to rely on the notion >that false advertising and dangerous goods are rare, and eliminated >whenever they are found (I guess that's still a pipe dream, but things >are better than they used to be). What you are saying is that we are penalizing the thoughtful and prudent in our society to reward the capricious, i.e., we are subsidizing the cost of capriciousness by decreasing the benefits of prudence. The implications for our future are not pleasant. >Martin Taylor Mike Sykora