[valenzuela]

Vhawk: Ure actually proposing democracy, right now George Bush is the chooser of America, Sarkozy the chooser of France, etc.

AlexM: I don’t have enough information to discuss the effects of American government policy on poverty, but I will tell you that most good governments tend to decrease poverty if the programs are done correctly.

TomCollins: I like how you automatically assume that you are right and anyone who disagrees with you is either stupid or “misguided” perhaps you are the one who is misguided! .
You are only putting emphasis on negative freedom while ignoring positive freedom, that point of view may look fine to wave your e-penis on internet message board discussions but if you apply them in the real world it doesn’t work quite as well, you simply choose to ignore all the bad effects of a total free-market , this is noted by the fact that you laugh at the idea of “not starving” as a definition of freedom. I think that not starving is a more reasonable definition of freedom than the right to not be coerced on your dubious absolute property-rights.

Kaj: Good posts

Pvn: 1) Success in life is down to brute luck, those lottery winners may have gotten “lucky” because they won a lottery prize but they were unlucky in the sense that they never got a proper education, success in life depends a lot on self determination but it can also come down to one broken condom, meeting the right person at the right time, your father becoming an alcoholic when you are 6, etc.
2) I’m not making an appeal to emotion; I’m making an argument based on utilitarian grounds.

Owsley: I agree with what you say.