“Countries,” “nations,” “governments,” “businesses,” as collectives, cannot perform actions. Only individuals can perform actions. When a government is collecting taxes, what is actually happening is certain individuals are demanding that other certain individuals pay them their “dues” or else either they are other certain individuals will use force to either extract payment or cage the…
Tag: collectivism
Re: Collectives II
Nobody asked but … My Kentucky Wildcat basketball team lost in a close contest to Michigan State last night. These are two of the teams considered most likely to play for the National Championship in the early Spring of 2014. So a statist may have observed my tirade against collectives and responded with, “you are…
Re: Collectives
Yes, Skyler, that is a good distinction to make. In my lexicon all collectives are the constructs arising from central planning. Specialization occurs in free markets, without central planning or artificial conglomerations of individuals. Furthermore, if in a free market the individual had all the skills needed, and no opportunity costs, he would do a…
Re: Collectives
Kilgore, true, but we mustn’t forgot the Law of Comparative Advantage, as discovered by David Ricardo. When each specializes in what they’re best at, and trades it for what they need, more is produced then when each tries to produce everything they need themselves. This doesn’t contradict what you wrote, that collectives can’t produce more than…
The Tragedy of the Collective
Nobody asked but … There is a common misconception that a collection of people can do more than the sum of the accomplishments of its individuals. In The Mythical Man Month (free download), computer scientist Fred Brooks explains that you cannot do twice as much by doubling either the time or the people allocated to…
Re: Social Skills and Authoritarianism
Nobody asked but … Skyler, I very much agree that it takes no brain to to see the faults of grade segregation, but I think it takes a disciplined brain to see the better alternatives. Organized schooling in America, however, is eminently qualified for behavior requiring no brain. Collectivism negates the use of brains. It…
WoD, WoT, Lies
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. Are you…
Benevolent Government
Send him mail. “Food for Thought” is an original column appearing every other Tuesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Norman Imberman. Norman is a retired podiatrist who loves playing piano, writing music, lawn bowling, bridge, reading, classical music, going to movies, plays, concerts and traveling. He is not a member of any social network, nor does he…
More Winnies, More History, Defining Religion
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. Today we…
Rants, the March for Freedom, Podcasts
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. Sometimes I…