Would Adam Smith be a Republican or a Democrat today?

Cypress said:
There is a reason we have the word "selfish" in the English language. The word does not exist for no reason at all. We use it for people who only act in their own self-interest or strictly for their own benefit and enjoyment.

English also has the words "obligation" or "responsibility" which you are totally ignoring, which are frequently used in moral, social, religious contexts.

There are about one thousand things that would "feel good", provide more enjoyment, be more self-interested than going to volunteer to serve inmates in State prisons, distributing humanitarian relief in Gaza, or refusing to tell Nazi interrogators you are hiding a Jewish family in your basement.
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Word games won't work, Sybil.
 
Truth Detector said:
I wish you could just answer a very simple question and not engage in your laughably inept fist pounding and flailing.

What is a better answer to fiat currency? Still waiting.
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Commodity based currency. In the Constitution of the United States, the only commodities for currency that is authorized is gold or silver.

The real beauty of commodity currency is that no central bank is required to manage it. It manages itself and is self regulating. This means government has very limited power (the way it's supposed to be!) and no real power over currency at all.
 
Cypress said:
The MAGAs and Perry don't seem to understand how complex the English language is, and that it contains words like selfish, obligation, responsibility, duty - all having their various shades of meaning. MAGA and Perry seem to want to reduce the English language to about 300 words and a just cram, shoehorn, and stuff a large pantheon of words and actions under the umbrella "self interest".
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Random words and phrases. No apparent coherency or meaning.

Word games won't work, Sybil. You really should try to learn English sometime as well.
 
Cypress said:
My answer to the topic is that Adam Smith probably wouldn't find a home in either the Democratic or Republican party.

Trump fancies himself Mr. Tarriff. That would alienate Smith.

But he would probably not find the large social welfare state appealing either. He really comes from a different world, and we can't apply 21st century standards to him
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You don't get to speak for Trump, Sybil. Omniscience fallacy.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Based upon the OP, it seems clear to me that, if he had to choose between the two, he'd be a Democrat.

While Democrats do lean hard into the "social welfare state", they are more moderate than the cult of personality in which the Republican Party has been perverted.

Additionally, as Einstein is often quoted as saying, "Everything is relative". Compared to the Euros, the American Democratic Party is a bastion of RWers.
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You don't get to speak for the dead either, Sybil. Omniscience fallacy.
 
Kamala Trump said:
i've said sound currency at least 2 times.
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...and you never defined it.
Kamala Trump said:
that's still my answer.
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A buzzword is not an answer. You need to define what you mean by 'sound currency'.
Kamala Trump said:
you can still have digital accounts and checks and stuff, but the currency is backed by something somewhere at some time.
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So you are thinking of a commodity based currency as 'sound currency'? Something like gold or silver?
Kamala Trump said:
this fantasy spending on the backs of the people is totaltitaraian horseshit.
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That's accurate. The Federal Reserve is communism.
 
Yakuda said:
Correct, ONLY in self interest but we all act in self interest

I dont ignore them i just realize that wherever and whenever possible people will meet their obligations and responsibilities toward their self interests. Your way of thinking here explains why you think you can pretend to be "defenders of democracy" even though your behavior reveals the exact opposite. You want us to believe you care that trump supposedly raped a woman even though he was found liable even though she didnt know when this supposed rape took place and state law was changed to accommodate the filing of the charges. It's in the self interest of Democrats to do all they can to get rid of trump but you cloak it in your supposed care for the "victim".

Self interest isn't bad it only matters what it's in the service of.
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I beg to differ somewhat.

Even for employees, you only get money by serving others. In other words, you are worth something to somebody and they will pay you for it.

That's because of service to others. That's really no selfish at all. It has a self interest, true, but even that is based on service to others.

Obtaining money without serving others is generally considered theft.
 
Into the Night said:
I beg to differ somewhat.

Even for employees, you only get money by serving others. In other words, you are worth something to somebody and they will pay you for it.

That's because of service to others. That's really no selfish at all. It has a self interest, true, but even that is based on service to others.

Obtaining money without serving others is generally considered theft.
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I don't think I fully get your point.

But I'm not serving others for free. My self interest is satisfied through getting paid. Self interest is not a bad thing. People seem to need to soften the edges of it as if it's a nasty thing.
 
Cypress said:
Nope. The "classical liberals" were replaced in Europe the late 19th and early 20th century by social democrats, a more progressive kind of liberalism that took into account labor rights and social welfare.

By the late 19th century and early 20th century when Lenin and Marx were around, they were reacting negatively towards social democrats and democratic socialists.
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They/Me were not called Classical liberals during that Marx/Lenin time, but both of them are complete progressive socialists, just like the entire democrap party.
 
Libhater said:
They/Me were not called Classical liberals during that Marx/Lenin time, but both of them are complete progressive socialists, just like the entire democrap party.
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Actually Wikipedia Scholar Cypress is correct. Classical liberalism looks more like libertarianism than progressive left here in the US in the 21st century.
 
Yakuda said:
I don't think I fully get your point.
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Into seldom has a point.

Yakuda said:
But I'm not serving others for free. My self interest is satisfied through getting paid. Self interest is not a bad thing. People seem to need to soften the edges of it as if it's a nasty thing.
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I totally agree with you here. There's absolutely nothing wrong with people admitting that they do, indeed, gain a benefit to themselves personally for the actions they take.

I even see people who help others "selflessly" are gaining a good feeling which is a benefit to the person doing the deed. I think it's actually kind of a cool aspect to the human brain. We might have an inbuilt propensity to help other people and it rewards us.
 
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