Something that I kind of realized, there are a lot of people out there who just want to step in and take over something that somebody else built. A good example of this is housing, everyone wants to kill the landlords.
Anyone who's ever owned a home should know that the house will disappear eventually if you don't keep it up. Every year you're putting some kind of work into it, and usually you have to do the same thing year after year after year. To really stay livable place you have to spend money on materials, and you have to constantly be upgrading the place as well. Most people if they lived in a house from 1900 that has never been upgraded would immediately say that they need to move.
This is why you can't just come in and take over everything that people have already built and expect your Utopia to come from that. Somebody needs to be invested enough to put in the work to maintain something, and the way that you do that is through ownership. The people's house will always fall apart. This is the tragedy of the commons, and it's been established for a very long time.
by contrast, if you take the same house from 1900 that's never been upgraded and you put a bunch of work into upgrading it, that is almost existential positive experience. Making something out of nothing and then having that something is incredible. Even if in having that something you give it to somebody else, or you make it a public work, it still started with something that you had that you made.
Anyone who's ever owned a home should know that the house will disappear eventually if you don't keep it up. Every year you're putting some kind of work into it, and usually you have to do the same thing year after year after year. To really stay livable place you have to spend money on materials, and you have to constantly be upgrading the place as well. Most people if they lived in a house from 1900 that has never been upgraded would immediately say that they need to move.
This is why you can't just come in and take over everything that people have already built and expect your Utopia to come from that. Somebody needs to be invested enough to put in the work to maintain something, and the way that you do that is through ownership. The people's house will always fall apart. This is the tragedy of the commons, and it's been established for a very long time.
by contrast, if you take the same house from 1900 that's never been upgraded and you put a bunch of work into upgrading it, that is almost existential positive experience. Making something out of nothing and then having that something is incredible. Even if in having that something you give it to somebody else, or you make it a public work, it still started with something that you had that you made.
@wjmaggos I'm not super libertarian, there's a lot of things the government does competently that I wouldn't want to see go away. The problem is that there's also most things that the government isn't good at.
I live in a pretty liberal city that actually does a good job on stuff. There's lots of things that wouldn't have existed without the government -- the harborfront, there's parks, there's beaches, there's walking trails, they just don't happen otherwise, but there's also a limited amount of upkeep that one entity can take care of on their own. But there's a line where a public good is no longer a public good. Only so many people can live in an apartment building or a house, for example. It isn't a public good, it's a private good even if it's made public. If the people living there don't have a stake in the property, the property is destroyed. We also have examples of that. Then the government ends up spending billions rebuilding the same house over and over and when the people in that house destroy the house they go to the press and say "Oh, poor me, look how they're making me live!"
I live in a pretty liberal city that actually does a good job on stuff. There's lots of things that wouldn't have existed without the government -- the harborfront, there's parks, there's beaches, there's walking trails, they just don't happen otherwise, but there's also a limited amount of upkeep that one entity can take care of on their own. But there's a line where a public good is no longer a public good. Only so many people can live in an apartment building or a house, for example. It isn't a public good, it's a private good even if it's made public. If the people living there don't have a stake in the property, the property is destroyed. We also have examples of that. Then the government ends up spending billions rebuilding the same house over and over and when the people in that house destroy the house they go to the press and say "Oh, poor me, look how they're making me live!"
@wjmaggos I think you're right on that. Regardless of where the line of public good vs. private good lies, without a sense of civic responsibility it doesn't matter. Without it, government programs will always be pork programs that waste money and don't help people.
To me the best example is the US healthcare system. The US specifically spends enough money to provide single payer health insurance to every citizen, but through a whole lot of bad backroom deals instead everyone pays full price for a single payer healthcare system then pays *again* for a private system on top of that!
To me the best example is the US healthcare system. The US specifically spends enough money to provide single payer health insurance to every citizen, but through a whole lot of bad backroom deals instead everyone pays full price for a single payer healthcare system then pays *again* for a private system on top of that!
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@wjmaggos It's difficult, unfortunately.
And just like what you said, the problem doesn't go away if there's a lack of civic responsibility just because you take the government away. You just go from the government not doing it to the private citizens not doing it.
It's an interesting thought: If you have a great populace, then no matter what the important work will get done. If you have a terrible populace, then no matter what the important work won't get done.
When JFK did his famous "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech, people hear it as "ask not what your government can do for you" but if you listen to it as "ask not what the people around you can do for you" then it becomes much clearer what we all need to do.
And just like what you said, the problem doesn't go away if there's a lack of civic responsibility just because you take the government away. You just go from the government not doing it to the private citizens not doing it.
It's an interesting thought: If you have a great populace, then no matter what the important work will get done. If you have a terrible populace, then no matter what the important work won't get done.
When JFK did his famous "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech, people hear it as "ask not what your government can do for you" but if you listen to it as "ask not what the people around you can do for you" then it becomes much clearer what we all need to do.