[MD] Value and the Individual

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Government, a social level institution, is necessary to protect us 
from the biological forces of social destruction, such as those who 
steal or destroy people or property.

[Arlo]
And, apparently, people who drive loud motorcycles. Or women who 
choose to wear headscarves.

Happily, I side with the people who have found that a legitimate role 
of the government is to regulate pollution, to enforce workplace 
safety, to curb child labor, and to provide injury and death 
compensation when at fault.

And also maintain a department of weights and measures, to print and 
circulate currency, to maintain a public park system, to provide an 
infrastructure of roads and waterways, to undertake diplomatic 
ventures, to provide public transit alternatives, to conduct space 
research, to provide library and literacy services, and to maintain 
public airwaves.

Oh, and also to ensure the education of all it citizens. Or at the 
least try. Social Darwinism need not apply.

Can the government over-regulate? Can it become busy-bodies in the 
lives of the citizens? Absolutely. The government should not be in 
the business of telling people how loud their motorcycles are allowed 
to be. Nor should they tell me what I can and can not wear.

[Platt]
Other than that, government force must be held in constant vigilance 
lest it become not a servant of Dynamic liberty, but as has happened 
so often in history, it's destroyer.

[Arlo]
Tell that to all those "dynamically liberated" people who suffered in 
factories and mines. Tell that to my grandfather who saw the 
devastating effects of the Capistocracy first-hand. Tell that to the 
people in Chicago who could not walk along the riverfront due to the 
odor of the coagulating blood, carcasses and feces that "Dynamic 
liberty" dumped there without concern or reservation. Tell that to 
the miners at Hawk's Nest who were sent knowingly unprotected into 
silica-rich mines so that the company could save a few buck on 
equipment. Do you think "Dynamic liberty" was there to console them 
as the choked to death on their own blood?

[Platt]
The "equation" which predictably Arlo distorts is the nature of 
government -- handcuffs and guns -- regardless of any justification 
for interfering in our lives

[Arlo]
In a discussion on the unsafe, low quality conditions that prompted 
the people to demand and enact social regulations, Platt brings up 
not only the mass murders of Stalin, but also to the terrorist 
bombings on the Twin Towers.

Yeah, Arlo distorted that. Right.