What's going on here? Campaign anonymity rule thrown out
Xerographica: You don't support allowing children to vote because they are incompetent?
megaprogman: If my boys could vote, they would vote for darth vader (I just asked them). If my daughter could vote, it would be for a disney princess.
Xerographica: Are you saying that if kids could vote then we would end up with either darth vader or a disney princess as our president?
What if...?: It becomes a possibility.
megaprogman: Not likely since they are not real people, the votes would just be voided.
Not likely? Heh.
If you ask enough adults why kids shouldn't be allowed to vote...then you'll understand what Churchill meant when he said that the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with your average voter. Well...unless you happen to be an average voter yourself. In that case, then you'll think that the average voter's arguments against kids voting merely confirm your own arguments against kids voting.
Would there be any ridiculous consequences of allowing children to vote? Not if you understand the concept of tyranny of the majority. What's a ridiculous consequence anyways? How about prohibition? Was that a ridiculous consequence? Was that a good reason why women shouldn't have been allowed to vote?
Xerographica: You don't support allowing women to vote because they are incompetent?
megaprogman: If my wife could vote, she would vote for alcohol to be illegal (I just asked her)
Xerographica: Are you saying that if women could vote then we would end up with prohibition?
What if...?: It becomes a possibility.
megaprogman: Not likely since they are not real people, the votes would just be voided.
That people believe there's a problem with allowing kids to vote...clearly indicates that there is not.
In related news...check out my arguments against personal shoppers for public goods...What's Wrong With a Representative Democracy? What do you think? Are my arguments so good or no good?
Showing posts with label children's suffrage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children's suffrage. Show all posts
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Self-Ownership Survey SOS
Let's have more political parties! Here's how this experiment works.
1. Abortion should be illegal - DNA allows us to differentiate between where your fist ends and somebody else's nose begins. If you invite somebody onto your property it doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. If somebody is forced onto your property it still doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. (A/D)
2. Consensual slavery should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to partially or fully sell yourself. You should have the right to sell your labor, your sex, your kidneys and your entire body. You should be able to sell yourself to anybody else for any amount of time as long as you fully agree to the terms of the contract. (A/D)
3. Polygamy should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to enter into a marriage contract with as many people as you so choose. (A/D)
4. Business owners should be allowed to discriminate. - Your business is your property. You should be able to do whatever you want with your property as long as your decisions do not violate the property rights of other people. If other people disagree with your business practices then they can express their disapproval by engaging in ethical builderism. In essence, business owners should have the right to shoot themselves in the foot if they so choose. If they want to send potential customers and/or potential employees to their competitors then that is their prerogative. (A/D)
5. Drugs should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to harm yourself in any way that you so choose. (A/D)
6. There should be a licence to procreate - You should have the right to be raised by people who were willing to take, and able to pass, a test based on a Parenting for Dummies textbook. It's a violation of your property rights to be raised by people who do not know the basic nutritional, health, safety, emotional, and educational needs of children. (A/D)
7. Children of any age should be allowed to vote (children's suffrage) - Everybody should have the right, completely irrespective of all other factors, to try and protect their interests. By restricting any individual's right to try and protect their interests we are legitimizing the idea that one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests. If one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests then it's reasonable for congress to take our money and spend it in our best interests. (A/D)
8. Campaign contributions should not be restricted - Everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests. By restricting somebody's right to try and protect their interests you are saying that you know for a fact what's in their best interests. How would you respond if somebody told you that they know for a fact what's in your best interests? Would you believe them? (A/D)
9. Taxpayers should be allowed to directly allocate their taxes (pragmatarianism) - We all have a debt to society but no two people have benefited from society in exactly the same way. Therefore, you are the only one that can truly know how you can best repay your debt to society. Voters should determine the functions of government and taxpayers should determine which functions to fund. (A/D)
10. Taxes should be abolished (anarcho-capitalism) - Your property is an extension of yourself. Nobody has a right to take your property. Somebody stealing one penny from you is as morally wrong as somebody stealing your kidney. (A/D)
What is your party's unique ID? Which SOS parties do you predict will be the most/least popular?
You're welcome to debate the topics...but the primary objective of this experiment is to facilitate finding others who share your same set of views with respect to self-ownership.
Here are some of the forums where I posted this survey...
- Decide whether you Agree/Disagree (A/D) with the 10 arguments in the following Self Ownership Survey (SOS)
- Combine your A/D responses in order to create a unique identifier (ID) for your party. Prefix the unique ID with "SOS". For example, here is my party's unique ID... SOSDAAAAAAAAD
- Reply to this post with your party's unique ID.
- Create a google alert to receive a notification when a new webpage contains your party's unique ID.
- Create a facebook page, blog, wikipedia entry, website, etc. dedicated to your party in order to make it easy for other people to find and join your party.
- If your party has enough members then vote on a user friendly name. You'll still want to attach your party's unique ID to all relevant pages in order to make them easy to find via google searches/alerts.
1. Abortion should be illegal - DNA allows us to differentiate between where your fist ends and somebody else's nose begins. If you invite somebody onto your property it doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. If somebody is forced onto your property it still doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. (A/D)
2. Consensual slavery should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to partially or fully sell yourself. You should have the right to sell your labor, your sex, your kidneys and your entire body. You should be able to sell yourself to anybody else for any amount of time as long as you fully agree to the terms of the contract. (A/D)
3. Polygamy should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to enter into a marriage contract with as many people as you so choose. (A/D)
4. Business owners should be allowed to discriminate. - Your business is your property. You should be able to do whatever you want with your property as long as your decisions do not violate the property rights of other people. If other people disagree with your business practices then they can express their disapproval by engaging in ethical builderism. In essence, business owners should have the right to shoot themselves in the foot if they so choose. If they want to send potential customers and/or potential employees to their competitors then that is their prerogative. (A/D)
5. Drugs should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to harm yourself in any way that you so choose. (A/D)
6. There should be a licence to procreate - You should have the right to be raised by people who were willing to take, and able to pass, a test based on a Parenting for Dummies textbook. It's a violation of your property rights to be raised by people who do not know the basic nutritional, health, safety, emotional, and educational needs of children. (A/D)
7. Children of any age should be allowed to vote (children's suffrage) - Everybody should have the right, completely irrespective of all other factors, to try and protect their interests. By restricting any individual's right to try and protect their interests we are legitimizing the idea that one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests. If one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests then it's reasonable for congress to take our money and spend it in our best interests. (A/D)
8. Campaign contributions should not be restricted - Everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests. By restricting somebody's right to try and protect their interests you are saying that you know for a fact what's in their best interests. How would you respond if somebody told you that they know for a fact what's in your best interests? Would you believe them? (A/D)
9. Taxpayers should be allowed to directly allocate their taxes (pragmatarianism) - We all have a debt to society but no two people have benefited from society in exactly the same way. Therefore, you are the only one that can truly know how you can best repay your debt to society. Voters should determine the functions of government and taxpayers should determine which functions to fund. (A/D)
10. Taxes should be abolished (anarcho-capitalism) - Your property is an extension of yourself. Nobody has a right to take your property. Somebody stealing one penny from you is as morally wrong as somebody stealing your kidney. (A/D)
What is your party's unique ID? Which SOS parties do you predict will be the most/least popular?
You're welcome to debate the topics...but the primary objective of this experiment is to facilitate finding others who share your same set of views with respect to self-ownership.
Here are some of the forums where I posted this survey...
- Libertarian Forum SOS
- Mises Forum SOS
- Ron Paul Forums SOS
- Stefan Molyneux's Forum SOS
- Debate Politics Forum SOS
Here was my original post...If You Don't Own You...Then Who Does?
Saturday, January 14, 2012
If You Don't Own You...Then Who Does?
Update...decided to turn this into a survey after all...Self-Ownership Survey (SOS).
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Eh, this has been sitting in my drafts section for a while. I would have liked to turn it into a survey... similar to my tax allocation survey...but other more pressing matters keep popping up so figured I'd just go ahead and post it. I was also motivated to post it by a couple of relevant articles that were recently published.
*****************
We all agree with the self-ownership principle to some degree. The question is...where do we draw the line? Here are 10 arguments with regards to the self-ownership principle. How many, if any, do you agree with? How ideologically consistent are you? In other words...where do you see yourself on the continuum ranging from pragmatism to dogmatism?
Abortion should be illegal - DNA allows us to differentiate between where your fist ends and somebody's nose begins. If you invite somebody onto your property it doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. If somebody is forced onto your property it still doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them.
Consensual slavery should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to partially or fully sell yourself. You should have the right to sell your kidneys, your sex and your entire body. You should be able to sell yourself to anybody else for any amount of time as long as you fully agree to the terms of the contract.
Polygamy should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to enter into a marriage contract with as my people as you so choose.
Euthanasia should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to authorize other people to terminate your life.
Drugs should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to harm yourself in any way that you so choose.
There should be a licence to procreate - You should have the right to be raised by people who were willing to take, and able to pass, a test based on a Parenting for Dummies textbook. It's a violation of your property rights to be raised by people who do not know the basic nutritional, health, safety, emotional, and educational needs of children.
Children of any age should be allowed to vote (children's suffrage) - Everybody should have the right, completely irrespective of all other factors, to try and protect their interests. By restricting any individual's right to try and protect their interests we are legitimizing the idea that one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests. If one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests then it's reasonable for congress to take our money and spend it in our best interests.
Campaign contributions should not be restricted - Everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests. By restricting somebody's right to try and protect their interests you are saying that you know for a fact what's in their best interests. How would you respond if somebody told you that they know for a fact what's in your best interests? Would you believe them?
Taxpayers should be allowed to directly allocate their taxes (pragmatarianism) - We all have a debt to society but no two people have benefited from society in exactly the same way. Therefore, you are the only one that can truly know how you can best repay your debt to society. Voters should determine the functions of government and taxpayers should determine which functions to fund.
Taxes should be abolished (anarcho-capitalism) - Your property is an extension of yourself. Nobody has a right to take your property. Somebody stealing one penny from you is as morally wrong as somebody stealing your kidney.
Bonus 11th argument...
Business owners should be allowed to discriminate. - Your business is your property. You should be able to do whatever you want with your property as long as your decisions do not violate the property rights of other people. If other people disagree with your business practices then they can express their disapproval by engaging in ethical consumerism. In essence, business owners should have the right to shoot themselves in the foot if they so choose. If they want to send customers and/or employees to their competitors then that is their prerogative.
*****************
Eh, this has been sitting in my drafts section for a while. I would have liked to turn it into a survey... similar to my tax allocation survey...but other more pressing matters keep popping up so figured I'd just go ahead and post it. I was also motivated to post it by a couple of relevant articles that were recently published.
*****************
We all agree with the self-ownership principle to some degree. The question is...where do we draw the line? Here are 10 arguments with regards to the self-ownership principle. How many, if any, do you agree with? How ideologically consistent are you? In other words...where do you see yourself on the continuum ranging from pragmatism to dogmatism?
Abortion should be illegal - DNA allows us to differentiate between where your fist ends and somebody's nose begins. If you invite somebody onto your property it doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them. If somebody is forced onto your property it still doesn't give you the right to initiate violence against them.
Consensual slavery should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to partially or fully sell yourself. You should have the right to sell your kidneys, your sex and your entire body. You should be able to sell yourself to anybody else for any amount of time as long as you fully agree to the terms of the contract.
Polygamy should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to enter into a marriage contract with as my people as you so choose.
Euthanasia should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to authorize other people to terminate your life.
Drugs should be legal - If you fully own yourself then you should be able to harm yourself in any way that you so choose.
There should be a licence to procreate - You should have the right to be raised by people who were willing to take, and able to pass, a test based on a Parenting for Dummies textbook. It's a violation of your property rights to be raised by people who do not know the basic nutritional, health, safety, emotional, and educational needs of children.
Children of any age should be allowed to vote (children's suffrage) - Everybody should have the right, completely irrespective of all other factors, to try and protect their interests. By restricting any individual's right to try and protect their interests we are legitimizing the idea that one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests. If one person can truly know what's in another person's best interests then it's reasonable for congress to take our money and spend it in our best interests.
Campaign contributions should not be restricted - Everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests. By restricting somebody's right to try and protect their interests you are saying that you know for a fact what's in their best interests. How would you respond if somebody told you that they know for a fact what's in your best interests? Would you believe them?
Taxpayers should be allowed to directly allocate their taxes (pragmatarianism) - We all have a debt to society but no two people have benefited from society in exactly the same way. Therefore, you are the only one that can truly know how you can best repay your debt to society. Voters should determine the functions of government and taxpayers should determine which functions to fund.
Taxes should be abolished (anarcho-capitalism) - Your property is an extension of yourself. Nobody has a right to take your property. Somebody stealing one penny from you is as morally wrong as somebody stealing your kidney.
Bonus 11th argument...
Business owners should be allowed to discriminate. - Your business is your property. You should be able to do whatever you want with your property as long as your decisions do not violate the property rights of other people. If other people disagree with your business practices then they can express their disapproval by engaging in ethical consumerism. In essence, business owners should have the right to shoot themselves in the foot if they so choose. If they want to send customers and/or employees to their competitors then that is their prerogative.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Children's Suffrage
Everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests. This is the basis for both universal suffrage and pragmatarianism.
Universal suffrage is far from universal in that it still excludes around 25% of the population from voting. So for some time now I've been advocating children's suffrage. It's fun to promote because every argument that adults give against kids voting can also be used against adults voting. Therefore, either everybody votes or nobody votes.
Here are some of the places where I have promoted universal suffrage...
- Consequentialist Arguments Against Children's Suffrage
- Self-Ownership Survey (SOS)
- Raise the Voting Age to 25
- The Ethics of Voting
- Should the Voting Age be Lowered?
- Pragmatarianism and Universal Suffrage
- Drugs are bad mmm'kay?
- Universal Suffrage, Pragmatarianism and the War On Drugs
- Universal Suffrage, Pragmatarianism and the War On Drugs
- Uniiversal Suffrage, Pragmatarianism and the War On Drugs
- Universal Suffrage
- The Myth of the Informed Voter
- The Myth of the Informed Voter
- Other People's Money
Just recently I ran across this great paper advocating children's suffrage. The author, Leo Semashko, offers a ton of very persuasive arguments why kids should be enfranchised. However, rather than advocating that children should be allowed to directly vote the author makes the argument that they should be allowed to vote by proxy. This type of voting by proxy is known as Demeny Voting. Semashko's reasoning for not allowing kids to vote is that they are incapable of articulating their interests.
Heck, sometimes I have a hard time articulating my interests. I'm certainly interested in the invisible hand but struggle when trying to describe the concept to some random person. Same thing with pragmatarianism. The point of this blog is to hopefully catch the attention of somebody that can more effectively articulate the idea of pragmatarianism.
Again, we see that every argument against kids voting can also be used against adults voting. We shouldn't need persuasive reasons to allow kids to vote. We should just recognize and respect that everybody should have the right to try and protect their interests...even if their interests conflict with our own.
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