richardhutnik said:
I first went into finding this info, when I was trying to look into what note free market economists and individuals who offer a foundation for philsophical thought, had to say about how to help the poor. I have seen what looked like increase meanness for the lack of a better word here, for the current political discussion and wonder what the thoughts where on the subject, so it was look up Hayek and Friedman and see what they had to say. I was surprised to see that they were advocating a forum of income redistribution, which is now see as communist, and evil. Looking back at the time they discussed things, the idea was redistribution of wealth, not income. The idea of own owned the means of production is what the battle was fought over. Now, it looks like capitalism won, but the issue has to do with income redistribution, with individuals arguing now that NONE should take place at all. I remember seeing where Mises stormed out of a meeting of the minds that had Hayek and Friedman were at discussing issues and he called the entire lot Socialists. I also was curious to see what Ayn Rand had to say, and you have her defenders saying she didn't hate the poor. Well, I guess ignoring isn't hate, but the effect would be the same. It could be also that the shape of the political debate now is to score points. You want to put individuals who want less government involvement in a box as hating those in need, so they have more programs to support, and the less tax, less money, less everything camp also including having those poor and in need as seen as lazy (interesting to go watch some Milton Friendman talk, and it is far more compassionate than what we see today). What I get most annoyed at is discussions and political views get less nuanced and more, washed in a simple mix of blue vs red. |
Well very few people i've seen say the poor should get NOTHING, no more then usual anyway. Something worth noting though is the difference in what we think of as quality of living vs what was thought of as quality of living in Friedman and Hayek's time.
Back then quality of living was more "Literally not starving on the streets."
Now a days quality of living tends to involve all kinds of stuff involving many comforts we take for granted, like television, microwaves, a car.. etc.
