Quote from: freebit13 on March 10, 2014, 03:22:11 PM

Nope, I'm not a gun toting, survival of the fittest type,

True, and nothing you said would suggest you were. That is my mistake for addressing that point to the wrong person, as noted in my edit.

Quote from: freebit13

but I do have more faith in humanity and I believe that when it comes down to it, people end up helping each other... I don't buy into that apocalyptic Hollywood type crap fed to everyone in which people turn in to monsters and everything goes Mad Max... no way, we don't live in the dark ages anymore, just go an look for positive videos on the internet and you'll find plenty, it's just not 'news'. Apparently the New York blackout turned into a more of a block party than looters and rioters and strangers invited strangers into their homes for the night... people aren't all mad you know.

My view is that if you create positions of power, you will have certain types of people (psychopaths, sociopaths etc.) who will gravitate towards those positions because of the advantages it affords them. Most normal people just want to get on with life and enjoy it, but the power structures allow them to be taken advantage of... it's just the way things work. It's not that all humans are evil, it's just the power structures we live in that allow a few evil to rule over the many good... and not by chance in my opinion.

If you get rid of centralized power, you get rid of centralized corruption... automatically.

Positions of power will still exist, they'll just be different. If it turns out your way, those will likely be higher ups in corporations. If it turns out the way I think, it will be gang leaders and large families/groups that are in control. Sociopaths will simply tend to gravitate toward the top of whatever heap you throw them in.

Quote from: freebit13

The argument that no roads, schools, hospitals etc. would be built without government is an old one, but is not very valid because most of the best roads are always private toll roads, government roads suck simply because they are made by companies on govenrment payroll which everyone know is a free ride, that also just the way things are. The best hospitals and schools are also private. I understand your argument that the poor can't afford these things, but that's exactly why there are charity organizations, those won't just go away without the gov. If everyone had more money from not paying taxes for things they don't use, then there would be more money to go round and it wold lift everyone up and more people might help poor people... just look at Kiva today...

The government is inefficient (which I agree with), but charities somehow magically aren't? Not to mention now nobody is obligated to pay into them, and no matter how idealistically you want to look at humanity, the fact is there are a lot of greedy and selfish people in the world, and none of them will be giving to charity unless they deem it good for their image.

Perhaps what this boils down to is a fundamental difference of opinion regarding how humanity functions and how things would go down in this new world. You have faith in humanity, I do not. You think it is possible to live in harmony without a government, I say many people need structure so as to not start killing each other, and some are so heartless and selfish that they wouldn't piss on someone on fire unless it benefited them in some way.

The devil you know, or the devil you don't.