Reason Online, the online presence of libertarian political magazine Reason, is featuring a book review of Cory Doctorow's book, Little Brother. Little Brother re-imagines George Orwell's classic, dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, as a modern cyberpunk thriller for a young adult audience.
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Member since:2005-06-29
That's a weird assessment. The situation is as bad as it is in the US exactly because there was TOO LITTLE government. Had the US gov stepped up earlier to properly protect its citizens, the mess would be far less bad than it is now.
I've never heard the "too much government" as a cause for the recent financial crisis. Any sources, perhaps? Genuinely interested.
Member since:2005-07-08
It also seems to be an essential part of the US political lingo and culture that we Europeans (and to some extent even Canadians) often have hard time to understand.
In the everyone-for-himself style paranoid American atmosphere government and even things like welfare system are often seen as the cause of problems rather than a solution, as odd as it may sound to a happy person living in a happy European welfare state. I suppose its been like that since many refugees, Utopian groups or people just looking for easy riches left the European shores to build a better life of their own in America, free from their former oppressive European governments. They might have had many things right then, but things have changed and we are just not living in the 1700's anymore.
Americans, on the other hand, seem to have difficulties understanding (central, Nordic & western) European democratic politics where many parties, instead of only fighting, and at least ideally, try to find a solution that is as good for everyone as possible, by means of constant negotiation and compromises. Americans do not often seem to trust negotiation, not to mention compromises, as a political solution but want money and direct power for themselves instead.
Edited 2008-09-25 14:38 UTC
Member since:2006-09-01
It's not so weird. The assumption that there was too little government assumes this was a market created problem. It's not; the government played a huge role in creating it.
In this instance, the politicians used the government to enable the banks to give out risky loans, which they mandated the banks do, rather then letting the market handle it. Simplification: the problem was caused by the government meddling in financial affairs.
The majority of people don't want the government bailing out companies. They would rather let them sink, so the perception of government meddling is very high. Also, the political atmosphere is very charged here. If the government started handed out free kittens, people would complain it was being irresponsible and moan about how much the kittens are costing us. Not to mention it isn't considering the cat problem down the road when the free kittens start breeding.
http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/in-plain-english-how-did...
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/23/video-whos-responsible-for-th...
Member since:2007-06-04
That's a weird assessment. The situation is as bad as it is in the US exactly because there was TOO LITTLE government. Had the US gov stepped up earlier to properly protect its citizens, the mess would be far less bad than it is now.
I've never heard the "too much government" as a cause for the recent financial crisis. Any sources, perhaps? Genuinely interested. "
It's not all that weird. If you're really interested just google "Austrian Business Cycle Theory" or just head straight for the source and visit http://mises.org
Member since:2005-07-06
That's a weird assessment. The situation is as bad as it is in the US exactly because there was TOO LITTLE government. Had the US gov stepped up earlier to properly protect its citizens, the mess would be far less bad than it is now.
I've never heard the "too much government" as a cause for the recent financial crisis. Any sources, perhaps? Genuinely interested. "
Incorrect. Look at the laws passed by congress to force banks to lend to people with low or no credit history under the guise of 'stopping discrimination'. To quote the Rand Institute:
“It was the government’s hand in the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve Board’s inflationary policy of keeping interest rates artificially low, the irrational lending standards forced on lenders by the federal Community Reinvestment Act, and the quasi-official policy of bailing out large financial institutions deemed too big to fail, that contributed to creating a situation in which millions of people were buying homes they could not afford, in which the participants experienced the illusion of prosperity, in which billions upon billions of dollars were going into bad investments.
“We do not need more regulation or economic ‘supervision.’ What we need to do is remove the government’s power to coerce, bribe, reward and bail out irrational decisions. The unfree market has failed. It’s time for a truly free market.”
There have been more indepth analysis of this; both the Republicans and Democrats have meddled in the economy and caused the crisis. The same thing happened back in the depression as well. Too bad we have born again marxists trying to turn this into a class of classes rather than what it really is - government screwing things up yet again.
Edited 2008-09-26 03:12 UTC
Member since:2007-06-20
The government harassed banks into giving out loans to non-creditworthy people based on a theory that homeownership created better citizens because they had a stake in the economy and a stable life. The practice of only giving loans to the people who could likely pay them back was called "racist" because many poor people are minorities and recent or illegal immigrants. Once the subprime market got opened up, banks got stupid greedy and that's why you see 500,000 dollar houses being sold under "subprime" loans to middle class people that could easily afford a reasonable house within their means, but were pushed a McMansion at a variable rate. Banks are greedy of course, and are culpable in many ways, but the government caused this by coercing banks into starting an entirely new field of risky loans. It's actually kind of funny how it ties into illegal immigration and the McMansion phenomenon, you've got more poor people who need a place to live, they can't afford houses, you open up the subprime lending field which causes a construction boom which cries for more cheap labor in the form of illegal immigrants who need houses. Construction is huge, they are now pushing bigger houses because they know that no matter how much money you make you can get a (risky) loan for a HUGE house. The contractor builds it and pockets the money from the bank, who cares if the people foreclose, you just sell it to someone else.
So the government messing with banking out of a mentally deficient idea of "equality" hastened a banking collapse, increased consumption of giant, low-quality and wasteful housing, and encouraged massive illegal immigration for construction jobs. Even when people lost their houses the jerks in construction and banking made their money and didn't care, this became a "crisis" when the banks foreclosed so many houses that they couldn't sell them again promptly, so they were sitting on mountains of rapidly depreciating houses that were costing them money instead of making money. Banks only make money from occupied houses they own.
Member since:2005-11-09
Member since:2005-11-09
Member since:2006-04-26
Member since:2005-07-06
Yah, well, gimme my SOMA.
You're right - just look at this generation. its like a nation of SOMA takers - "I can't handle this, so I'll take a drug to fix it".
The "Brace New World" on the other hand is a headonistic, nihlistic dystopia. What we are living in today isn't the age of atheism, we are living in an age of headonistic nihlism where storm term pleasure and satisfaction is the aim of the game.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Because too many cannot extrapolate ideas in the book into today's situation in reference to the internet and so forth. The average person these days lack the ability to be able to think for themselves and come up with original ideas - unless these ideas are spoon fed to them, they miss the point altogether.
Then again, just look at our society right now, and how willing this generation is to give up freedom for a welfare hand out and an assurance of 'security'. Its pathetic to see it in action - heck, New Zealand is a prime example of where people demand welfare hand outs with one hand and then bemoan the ideas of anti-smacking legislation and telling parents what their kids are allowed for lunch at school.
Then again, as Hayek said - the road to serfdom is paved with good intentions. The recent financial crisis is an example of what happens when there is too much government. Again, its too bad that so many here read 1984 and ignore the frightening parallels we see today under the guise of a 'caring and sharing' society.