For Your Political Thought
John Stossel interviews Ron Paul on drugs and prostitution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpgWAAmVwDM
I've always been conflicted about these issues. It's the collateral damage, so to speak, that gives me pause on legalizing either.
5 comments:
Americans have such an awful tendency towards excess.
I was in favor of legalizing gambling, on the grounds that people ought to be able to spend their own money their own way, but now that I've seen quaint little country towns transformed into ugly, gaudy casino towns, I've changed my mind.
Sorry, but it really irks me when people imply that we have to pass legislation to save people from themselves. It smacks of certain invasions of certain asian nations under the auspices of saving them from Communism.
But then, I am a libertarian. So that would be my point of view.
Thomas, maybe SOME towns need to be converted to "ugly, gaudy casino towns" so that yours doesn't have to. Maybe we need a "heroin park" here and there so that your street can be clean. And maybe we need a "Storyville" or two here and there so that we don't have to worry about it elsewhere.
Let's all face it folks, the demand is not going away. So, better control over the supply is going to be the only way we can get a handle on the traffic. Making it illegal only fills up prisons.
I'm with Pos on this one, guys. Legalize everything and let [the god of your choice] sort 'em out. Underneath all of our current nanny state rules there's this idea that if people don't have access to things like gambling and drugs somehow that will save them. The truth is that if someone is hell-bent on ruining his/her life they'll figure out a way to do it regardless of what's available or legal.
Some collateral damage, for your consideration.
In Thomas's town, the little boy or girl whose parent doesn't quite get home, or gets home with no money for the child's milk. I know, it's isolated and there are other means of feeding and caring for the child.
Storeyville. We do need to worry about such towns, though we are miles away; unless we are willing to narrow our idea of community. Same with needle parks.
When I do wrong it effects other people. Were I to be any political thing, it would be a big or small L libertarian. My problem with my intellectual bent is that all the little atoms and molecules of how we live our lives, bump into others. I don't have a problem with me or someone else being hell bent on hurting me me, or them hurting themselves.
Our freedom to act ends at the point where our action harms others. Vices harm others.
All that said, were we to avoid the excess that freedom grants us....
Ah yes. Were we humans to become non-human. That would certainly be the thing now wouldn't it.
I agree with you but don't think it's possible.
And I still assert that the demand - right or wrong - will always be there. Because we are human.
Does that make me a cynic or a realist? I don't consider myself cynical for whatever that's worth.
As for your hypothetical child in Thomas' town, I certainly do not wish this on him/her. I don't have a good solution. But wishing away the problem is not a solution either.
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