WLIM@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (09/12/86)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: Was Ayn Rand a libertarian? A year or two ago, JOSH@RED.RUTGERS.EDU was a major contributor to this list, and he eloquently propounded the cause of individual liberties in the name of libertarianism. From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: Libertarians & the Digest JoSH handled the unbelievers quite well, and he was twice as eloquent as I am. When JOSH was the moderator of POLI-SCI there were complaints of him dominating the discussion by insisting on having the last word in almost every debate that he was involved in. What ended up happening was that many people didn't feel that it was a discussion anymore and stopped sending in their contributions. From the libertarian point of view, there is an explanation for the frequent long messages on this and other mailing lists. It is because the electronic mailing system is free. As a result individuals do not have incentives to conserve on words and strive for quality instead of quantity. This is very similar to the behavior we see in the abuse of the welfare system. If we were to privatize a mailing list like POLI-SCI and charge every contributor according to the number of bytes in the message, there would be more discussing and less dominating. I do see this as a very good example for libertarians to use in their arguments against the government dishing out "freebies". Willie ------- -------