tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post2617241810843099576..comments2024-01-23T17:14:04.067-05:00Comments on Jaltcoh: The "acting alone" fallacyJohn Althouse Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-47458462348692531062015-05-11T23:48:43.886-04:002015-05-11T23:48:43.886-04:00Very nice article and I am Obat Bius very happy to...Very nice article and I am <a href="http://www.obatbiusoriginal.com/" rel="nofollow">Obat Bius</a> very happy to meet with your blog, the articles are very interesting, thank you for share very amazing article and I wait for the next quality articles.Obat Bius Originalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05212886435337821790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-33994982873159636412013-02-13T22:26:14.400-05:002013-02-13T22:26:14.400-05:00I think the problem here is one of a poor choice o...I think the problem here is one of a poor choice of metaphor--the acting alone versus working together theme does tend to gloss over the legitimate disagreements over public versus private, federal versus state, etc. I think it's clear what Obama means--that there are certain things that can only be done on a national level (infrastructure, military, disaster relief, etc). His approach to this collective action is baked into the language. <br /><br />He phrasing here is a straw man--a straw man to challenge another man, used to counter the idea of Obama being for top-down government. He tends to use broad metaphors to defend his approach to government and the economy. He doesn't always get it right. Rafiquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13868606088557261456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-20009703570754559782013-01-29T15:37:26.211-05:002013-01-29T15:37:26.211-05:00Wonderful Design Blogs, Such a great list. Thanks ...Wonderful Design Blogs, Such a great list. Thanks for sharing all these blogs all are very useful to every one.<br /><a href="https://www.satisfyingsmoke.com/" rel="nofollow">Electronic Cigarettes</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11835245552695132624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-69259652954232717042013-01-26T09:39:48.588-05:002013-01-26T09:39:48.588-05:00Would you be able to supply a list of bridges that...<i>Would you be able to supply a list of bridges that fell into rivers due to poor maintenance in the recent past?</i><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge" rel="nofollow">That Minneapolis bridge in 2007.</a>John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-63838093955701110202013-01-26T09:30:58.954-05:002013-01-26T09:30:58.954-05:00Maybe you're misunderstanding him. He could be...<i>Maybe you're misunderstanding him. He could be making the Hayekian point that no one person has the dispersed knowledge necessary to run schools, do research or create jobs and that those tasks should be left to the free market. :-)</i><br /><br />Theoretically, yes! In reality, each sentence in a presidential inaugural address is carefully crafted to advance the president's agenda and ideology. It isn't the same thing as some random comment someone makes in a free-ranging political debate over beers. Everything he says should be seen through the prism of: here's why it's a good thing that you're going to have a Democratic rather than Republican president. Obama's "acting alone" point resonates with the theme of the Democratic convention that "government is the only thing we all belong to." He might not explicitly say what I've attributed to him, but he strongly implies it over and over.John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-6553022449919698232013-01-25T18:12:51.413-05:002013-01-25T18:12:51.413-05:00to mark, good comment.
I would add a 3rd function ...to mark, good comment.<br />I would add a 3rd function though, national defense, which prevents other nations telling us what we must do.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18268431913030605631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-28043422783933338792013-01-25T12:24:51.384-05:002013-01-25T12:24:51.384-05:00Maybe you're misunderstanding him. He could b...Maybe you're misunderstanding him. He could be making the Hayekian point that no one person has the dispersed knowledge necessary to run schools, do research or create jobs and that those tasks should be left to the free market. :-)James Oswaldhttp://azmytheconomics.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-51989486283281576612013-01-24T19:29:53.842-05:002013-01-24T19:29:53.842-05:00Okay, here's a list of bridge collases.
It lo...Okay, here's a list of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures" rel="nofollow">bridge collases</a>.<br /><br />It looks like the most recent one that was due to lack of maintenance was April 1, 1989. So over 23 years ago. Ignorance is Blisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17351664545145783244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-32333364395499912042013-01-24T18:51:13.415-05:002013-01-24T18:51:13.415-05:00ScuzzaMan ... the problem with most of the anti-wa...ScuzzaMan ... the problem with most of the anti-war alternatives is that they end up effectively doing nothing when your enemy has no respect for life, liberty, or good faith, and has no problems turning your good faith against you.<br /><br />They can work when your adversary still has a measure of respect for the above ... as Great Britain did when Ghandi et. al. worked to make India an independent nation ... but not when your adversary is willing to lie and cheat to get their way.<br /><br />OTOH, simply doing nothing is no longer a viable option in a lot of cases ... since we live in such a highly-interconnected world, a few miscreants can leverage technology and freedom-of-movement and wreak havoc at a level that it took six aircraft carriers to achieve at Pearl Harbor.<br /><br />And keep in mind that "blowback" can come from doing nothing, as much as it can from acting ... especially when your nation promotes life and liberty as unalienable rights that belong to ALL men, yet ignores (when not making nice with) tyrants in the name of realpolitik. People remember that.<br /><br />Without freedom ... and the respect for and protection of it by those who govern ... the only real peace is that of the grave.Ritchie The Riveterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142451531127717113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-10968410063755206812013-01-24T17:23:58.418-05:002013-01-24T17:23:58.418-05:00I have an experiment. Take 50 engineers and put t...I have an experiment. Take 50 engineers and put them in a room and tell them to build a rocket. Give them a $1M budget and 6 months. <br /><br />Take another 50 engineers, put them in a room with $1M and 6 months, but give them the benefit or 10 or so government types. One is in charge of minority rights, one is in charge of making sure the rocket is eco friendly, one is in charge of making sure union members have their say, one is in charge of safety, one is in charge of making sure they don't discriminate again gays and women, one is in charge of making sure the rocket complies with gov't regulation,etc. <br /><br />Which room would you want to be in? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-28088323701929225192013-01-24T16:59:40.663-05:002013-01-24T16:59:40.663-05:00Government is what we do together as a society. Li...Government is what we do together as a society. Like require 10 year old girls to have a license to sell lemonade or no-knock raids at wrong addresses.geoffrobinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14949411893531888555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-35103048641796060712013-01-24T15:22:49.502-05:002013-01-24T15:22:49.502-05:00>"Government is really capable of doing tw...>"Government is really capable of doing two things: telling citizens what they may not do, and telling citizens what they must do."<br /><br />Yes, of course--that which is not permitted will be required. There is no gray area with this government as it is totalitarian.<br /><br />Good luck with that.<br /><br />Forbeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08397667344368400622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-30846343567877382092013-01-24T14:56:56.464-05:002013-01-24T14:56:56.464-05:00Anonymous said...
Seriously, "Ignorance is B...Anonymous said...<br /><br /><i>Seriously, "Ignorance is Bliss"? You don't believe that we have deteriorating bridges in this country?</i><br /><br />Of course we have deteriorating bridges. Every bridge, everywhere is deteriorating. Google 'entropy'.<br /><br /><i>Start with this report from Transportation for America (T4), a nonprofit coalition of more than 500 national, state and local organizations and elected officials. It concludes that of the 600,000 bridges in the U.S., about 11.5% are "structurally deficient by government standards." And this number is virtually certain to increase.</i><br /><br />So a group of people who believe they would benefit from more infrastructure spending created a report saying we should spend more on infrastructure. <br /><br />I skimmed the report, but didn't find the list of bridges that had fallen into rivers in recent years. Which page was that on?Ignorance is Blisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17351664545145783244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-6145944840424152312013-01-24T14:38:44.449-05:002013-01-24T14:38:44.449-05:00Remember, it was "Yes We Can" not "...Remember, it was "Yes We Can" not "Yes You Can". It has always been about the collective, i.e. BIG GOVERNMENT. We are not empowered alone, only by the government. All the grassroots on the right are collective that is ignored, but not the OWS collective.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-69862791575518729882013-01-24T14:32:33.987-05:002013-01-24T14:32:33.987-05:00Seriously, "Ignorance is Bliss"? You don...Seriously, "Ignorance is Bliss"? You don't believe that we have deteriorating bridges in this country? Start with <a href="http://t4america.org/docs/bridgereport/bridgereport-national.pdf" rel="nofollow">this report</a> from Transportation for America (T4), a nonprofit coalition of more than 500 national, state and local organizations and elected officials. It concludes that of the 600,000 bridges in the U.S., about 11.5% are "structurally deficient by government standards." And this number is virtually certain to increase.<br /><br />Try Googling the phrase "unsafe bridges" sometime. You'll find that this problem is well documented.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-4655950788475578682013-01-24T14:06:03.992-05:002013-01-24T14:06:03.992-05:00Strawman argument from Obama?
Say it ain't so...Strawman argument from Obama?<br /><br />Say it ain't so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-78063923306165631622013-01-24T14:03:14.833-05:002013-01-24T14:03:14.833-05:00goethean said...
Really? Is that why we have brid...goethean said...<br /><br /><i>Really? Is that why we have bridges that are so poorly maintained that they are falling into rivers?</i><br /><br />Would you be able to supply a list of bridges that fell into rivers due to poor maintenance in the recent past? <br /><br />I keep hearing about our crumbling infrastructure, while all the roads around where I live keep getting redone: bridges expanded, lanes added, shoulders widened...Ignorance is Blisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17351664545145783244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-9828152132384311572013-01-24T13:58:05.852-05:002013-01-24T13:58:05.852-05:00the same (false) dichotomy is typically applied to...the same (false) dichotomy is typically applied to wanti-war arguments, as well. Whenever one tries to argue that killing essentially random numbers of foreigners is hardly symptomatic of an enlightened civilisation, one gets the shrieking response: "So you'd have us do NOTHING!?"<br /><br />Like there are no other choices. And so many reflexively respond to pacifism with arguments against (what they call) 'isolationism', as if they were synonymous rather than almost entirely unrelated concepts.<br /><br />And so the only alternative to Robinson Crusoe is Washington, DC.<br /><br />Meh.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-16063417792215003652013-01-24T13:52:30.414-05:002013-01-24T13:52:30.414-05:00"There is nobody in this country who got rich..."There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own -- nobody"<br /><br />That's true. That person who got rich had to pay a lot of taxes along the way and I'd say he paid for more than his/her fair share of all the things you mentioned. In fact, you probably received more benefits from this rich person's actions than you returned to society yourself.<br /><br />Your argument followed to its logical conclusion ends in the abolition of private property and everything that implies, i.e. the end of liberty.<br /><br />The underlying social contract has been destroyed by corruption and Marxism, which is found in abundance today. There is no social contract.<br /><br />The country's leaders ignore the laws, as do the rich and powerful. Laws are for the little people and this has now made the nation lawless. In fact, it's hard to follow one law without breaking another and for this reason, these control freaks are now trapped in their own laws.<br /><br />There's nothing left to "pay forward" and why would anyone want to pay a single penny to criminals who are trying to destroy their liberty?Concerned Citizenhttp://beforeitsnews.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-44168182016350322202013-01-24T13:44:39.258-05:002013-01-24T13:44:39.258-05:00A excellent example of a corporeal "Great Pir...A excellent example of a corporeal "Great Pirate" as explained by Buckminster Fuller.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-48684546450928361612013-01-24T13:39:45.109-05:002013-01-24T13:39:45.109-05:00Government is the only institution in society with...Government is the only institution in society with a monopoly on coercion. It uses coercion to force you to pay taxes and it forces us to consume monopolistic government services we may not want (like wars, Obamacare, whatever). And because government provides those services on a monopolistic basis without competition, there is little incentive for it to provide those services efficiently. We end up with a system littered with corruption, waste, fraud, cronyism, etc. as government grows ever larger.<br /><br />The private sector, on the other hand, is based purely on voluntary exchange. We all decide who we want to do business with and how much we want to spend. Its voluntary exchange that gives individuals, collectively, the power to decide which industries, companies and products fail and which succeed. Take Eastman Kodak, for example. The company did not adapt quickly enough to changing consumer preferences for digital images. A company with a nearly 150 year history was forced to declare bankruptcy because consumers changed their preferences. All this drivel from Democrats and the political left about how evil business is is garbage. It was the ruthless consumers who used their dollars to vote EK out of business because EK no longer provided the products and services that consumers valued.<br /><br />You do not get that with government. You are COERCED to pay taxes to a government that provides uncompetitive monopolistic services. Coercion is a horrible way for a nominally "free" people to allocate economic resources. That's why conservatives/libertarians value limited government so much. Because we know that while some government is necessary, whatever resources devoted to it are inefficiently used and those resources are diverted away from productive uses that are more valuable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-48970880835693358302013-01-24T13:35:46.211-05:002013-01-24T13:35:46.211-05:00All you need to do is show up for work or go to sc...<i>All you need to do is show up for work or go to school; we have experts who have the answers to your housing needs, your health care needs, your financial needs … no need to plan for your future or actively manage your career, since we can do a better job than you can; just trust us to solve those problems FOR you.</i><br /><br />This is the face of the Democratic Party today, and almost all my life for that matter. And it enables/aids/abets what I consider to be the fundamental problem we have in this nation: the "outsourcing" of personal responsibility and personal initiative to a self-selected elite, believing that only they can solve our problems for us.<br /><br />Mr. Obama's definition of unity is not unity ... it is submission to your "betters" under the coercive force of law, at the expense of accessing the brainpower, willpower, and insight of 300 million people.Ritchie The Riveterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142451531127717113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-49476612934063886782013-01-24T13:34:18.622-05:002013-01-24T13:34:18.622-05:00Well said.Well said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-69630286777683734262013-01-24T12:37:17.295-05:002013-01-24T12:37:17.295-05:00Borrowing to build all this infrastructure and pay...Borrowing to build all this infrastructure and pay for entitlements will mean that eventually the only people who will be driving on all these new roads will be government employees driving government Volts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-48244070808541443692013-01-24T12:25:09.862-05:002013-01-24T12:25:09.862-05:00If nobody on his own can create a pencil then ...
...If nobody on his own can create a pencil then ...<br /><br />It's time for a U.S. Department of Pencils!<br /><br />If we don't, then we're depleting the world's pencil supplies. Soon we'll have to institute rationing.Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04720409839023747889noreply@blogger.com