From: jredford@shearson.com (John Redford)
Subject: Re: A minor problem
Organization: Lehman Brothers
	<ALEXJ.92Dec29110509@claudius.juliet.ll.mit.edu>
	<1992Dec30.191026.6828@eng.ufl.edu>
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 00:01:40 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.191026.6828@eng.ufl.edu> jdb@crane.cis.ufl.edu (John Brothers) writes:

   [ Some stuff deleted ]

   Rand discusses the "proper" use of government in Shrugged, at least briefly.
   for example, government is properly in charge of the military defense of the
   country.  To this I would add:

   Government is properly protective of the well-being of future citizens of
   the country.  

   A lot of people may disagree with me.  I would suspect those people also feel
   that they should not be held accountable for the actions of previous citizens
   (for example, civil rights reparations).

I dont see how you can reach such a stupid conclusion. Either the Past
is responsible for the Future, and 'we' are responsible for the
enviroment of 'our children' and 'our parents' are responsible for the
enviroment 'we' are 'born into', OR the Future is responsible for the
Past and 'we' are responsible for the enviroment 'our parents' created
and 'our children' are responsible for the enviroment 'we' create.

You cant punish people for the sins of their ancestors and at the
same time ask them to care about their children. Personally, I see it
as more sensible to expect people to care about the future than the
past, as they cant do anything to change the past.


   If the government was in charge of protecting future citizens, we could
   see taxes on limited resources.  This would cause companies to either find
   renewable substitutes or increase the utilization of present resourses.  In 
   this manner, limited resources would be available longer.

Any company that wishes to be profitable for a long time has
self-interest to cause it to explore new resources. All a tax does is
cause them to switch from the old to the newer sooner, and that is
more likely to mean they will use the new resource in an inefficient
manner. If you think all resources equal, then it dosent matter IF you
run out of one so long as a substitue is available.

   Similarly, the government would properly control environmental problems.  
   Most people I know, myself included, really lack the vision to predict
   whether what is dumped in the ocean today will affect the people of 100 years
   from now.   Will they develop some incredible cleaning system?  Will it
   turn all the newborn babies into three-toed tree sloths?  Who knows?  This
   is where the government should step in and regulate.  If companies were taxed
   on the amount of waste they produced, they would either reduce the waste,
   or find some means of converting it to something else, that was not taxable. 

This is even stupider than your other paragraph. Why do you think that
having a group of persons sitting together is likely to generate
wisdom about the affect of ocean dumping 100 years from now? You might
be less likely to avoid certain type of extremism by having a group of
persons discuss the issue, but you wont actually get any closer to the
Truth of the situation. The government can't predict the future.

If companies were taxed on the waste they produce, then you would see
them produce less of the things the tax classified as waste. They
MIGHT also happen to fire all their employees and go out of business.
They MIGHT also happen to produce extreme ammounts of alternate waste
material. You seem to admit this, so why would you favour such a tax
blindly?


   For the same reason, governments should not run up debts.  This will affect
   the well-being of future citizens of the nation.

EVERYTHING government does affects the well-being of future citizens
of the nation. That is their duty. If you can think of a way that debt
(mere debt, not extreme debt) damages a country please try expressing
it.

   Awaiting comments...

Indeed.

--
John Redford (AKA GArrow) | 3,600 hours of tape.
jredford@shearson.com     | 5 cans of Scotchguard.