Stefan Molyneux:
I think that is a great article -- and very nicely written!
Thank you!
Stefan Molyneux:
The litmus test for me is always the "against me" argument...
That's part of what I was trying to get at in my article. If someone stands before me and says, "I believe in policies that ultimately represent violence against you," are they really "against me"? The real victim of an individual's statism is the statist, and it has minimal real impact on me.
The statist may also be thinking that he is a "benevolent king"; someone who is trying to wield power for good. Of course this notion is absurd to you and me, yet it's counter-intuitive to most people.
I just finished another article where I compare Obama and Apple computers, both widely perceived as good. http://mmw-blog.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-apples-if-were-lucky.html
It's not that Obama is bad, or that Apples are bad. There is a video of yours that sticks in my mind where you say something like "if the government does the job well for $1 million where it could've cost only $1k, then how can that be considered a job well done?" I think in this sense, neither Obama nor Apple computers can be considered jobs well done, considering that both have huge opportunity costs to the free sector of the economy.
To me, a statist is just someone who isn't trained to see that opportunity cost.