#lolbertarians

[wageronancap]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Austin Peterson:

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[wageronancap]

Undereducated American lolbertarians being mad at tankies because the tankies called them "liberals" is genuinely hilarious

[sethpeck]

Whenever some dirigible-skulled armchair economist says they don't want their taxes to go to help people, or when they insist upon means testing, my instinct is to ask them why they want a bigger government. Let's expand on this idea. I'll use a favorite of the Chicago school crowd: highways.

A lot of highways are being expanded to accommodate increased vehicle traffic, but instead of the expansions being funded by taxes, they're being funded by contracts with private corporations who then collect toll revenue. So now there's a new administrative entity that takes payments, issues transponders, reads plates, etc. An entity that collects position information on its participants--information that would be unnecessary for them to collect if they weren't charging tolls. Of course, not everyone wants to pay toll revenue, so some people cross over the lanes. In order to mitigate this, they make it a misdemeanor crime to cross the line into or out of a toll lane. And a law without enforcement is useless, so they hire more cops to enforce it. So instead of approving a change that would cost a little more money through taxes, the libertarians have chosen the path that increased the amount of administrative overhead, installed cameras that photograph and track movement, and raised the number of cops on the highway. Such actions will invariably increase the number of tickets, altercations, and shootings unrelated to the enforcement of that particular law, as well as increasing the chance of tolls and fees being mishandled, embezzled, or discriminatorily applied. And in terms of impacting the economy, money spent on expanding a lane increases the total amount of expense of both the commuters, who still have to spend money on gas, tires, tolls, etc.; and the jurisdiction or administrative authority, who has to pay for maintenance. Such money would be better spent on a commuter rail of some sort. But even a commuter rail has its own enforcement mechanisms if fares are charged. Many jurisdictions don't offer free rides, so as it was with the enforcement of the toll lane, the jurisdiction has to increase the size of the authorities needed to collect fares and enforce against fare evasion. Now take this concept and apply it to any number of municipal, state, and federal programs: financial aid for higher education, school lunch programs, SNAP, TANF, universal day care. A healthy social program funded by increased taxes results in a smaller government; an underfunded program creates more government and authority. "Oh but Seth, those people don't want ANY social programs or government funded services!" Then they've chosen an even larger, more sinister, more shadowy government; one that exists only in secrecy, unelected by the citizenry, self-appointed and executing their enforcement of property rights without public input. Or, the entire populace has acknowledged, possibly tacitly, the responsibility of accommodating the collective needs of everyone without the existence of a formal state, a concept commonly understood by the name "communism".

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[endothermicmammal]

Elon Musk

So do the #Neurodiverse #Rationalists and #LessWrong advocates still kiss his ass as though he’s some kind of genius or are they finally admitting he’s a transphobic and ableist bigot?