Brian Burger opined

On Mon, 24 Nov 2003, Ash Wyllie wrote:

Dan Luke opined

"Wdtabor" wrote:
America: where the Conservatives aren't conservative and the Liberals
aren't liberal.

Where do I sign up for the new party?

WWW.LP.ORG

Close, but no cigar. The LP's blind faith in laissez-faire capitalism
betrays a failure to understand that *any* unrestrained power threatens
liberty. It matters not whether that power is in the hands of
government, religion, labor unions or business.

Of all the organizations mentioned, only governments claim the right to
shoot first and ask questions later.

Really? Read some history before you make statements like that. I'd start
with the British East India Company, Dutch East Indies Company, the
Belgians in the Congo, and anything Cecil Rhodes was involved in.

The key word is *claim* . The East India companies were chartered by
governments, and the governments may well have delegated its right to
slaughter to the companies. It is a bit hard to compare the behaviour of 16th
century companies to 21st century comanies. I have not been shot once for
leaving a show room with out buying something.

It was King Leopold who bought the Congo (using money loaned by the Belgian
parliment) as his private hunting preserve. It's hard to call him a company
since he was a reigning monarch - in fact he was the government.

Good old Cecil made himself a government.

All those wonderfully unrestrained capitalist companies - and they started
to look a lot like governments after a fairly short while. Including the
use of force and similar entertainments.

You are confusing mercantilists with capitalists. Capitalists prefer to trade.
It is more profitable in the long run.

-ash
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