I'm glad you posted this, both because it was revealing and fascinating in its own right, and because I've just been lamenting the lack of this type of post (read: personal and interesting without being either whiny or overly self-congratulatory) on LJ.
I tend to lean libertarian, but less as a "Privatize everything!" philosophy than a "As a default, less bureaucratic interference is better unless there's a compelling reason to have it in each specific case." The difference comes in what strikes people as a compelling reason, I guess. I tend to think most realms can benefit from a bit of free market, especially when interference prevents actual costs from being passed onto the consumer. (I imagine if US citizens had been paying what gas ought to cost for the past few decades, we'd be much further with fuel-efficient/alternative-energy cars by now, as well as public transport.)
That being said, I tend to feel that when it comes to situations of concentrated/present benefit and dispersed/future cost (e.g. Environmental concerns), clearly the free market will not bring an optimal solution left to operate without any oversight.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-10-31 05:51 pm (UTC)I tend to lean libertarian, but less as a "Privatize everything!" philosophy than a "As a default, less bureaucratic interference is better unless there's a compelling reason to have it in each specific case." The difference comes in what strikes people as a compelling reason, I guess. I tend to think most realms can benefit from a bit of free market, especially when interference prevents actual costs from being passed onto the consumer. (I imagine if US citizens had been paying what gas ought to cost for the past few decades, we'd be much further with fuel-efficient/alternative-energy cars by now, as well as public transport.)
That being said, I tend to feel that when it comes to situations of concentrated/present benefit and dispersed/future cost (e.g. Environmental concerns), clearly the free market will not bring an optimal solution left to operate without any oversight.