y_feldblum Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Any time there is an issue of scarcity of goods there will be a conflict of interest. If you and I need a tank of gas and we want to go in opposite directions, but there is only enough gas for one of us, there will be a conflict of interest no matter how rational egoistic we are. Every single good for consumption and every single good necessary to produce other goods for consumption is scarce. There is not an infinite quantity of anything. Yet it is possible for people to get along well with each other. Check your premises, because you have arrived at a contradiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y_feldblum Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Punk, in addition to reading Ayn Rand's essay on the conflicts of men's interests, I would suggest reading George Reisman's tome Capitalism. It is dedicated to showing the natural harmony of men's interests which arises given the natural scarcity of every thing in existence and a society based on the respect of individual rights, including the right to property, coupled with the institution of the division of labor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punk Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Every single good for consumption and every single good necessary to produce other goods for consumption is scarce. There is not an infinite quantity of anything. Yet it is possible for people to get along well with each other. Check your premises, because you have arrived at a contradiction. I didn't say they couldn't get along. I said that Japan would have interests that it would pursue that would be at odds with American interests. Those can be settled within the bound of civil society. I suppose when someone asks if America can "trust" Japan, that implies (to my mind at least) that Japan will not do anything at odds with American policy. In geopolitical terms American cannot trust Japan not to push to increase its power relative to America I envision this in analogy to two competing firms. They are both out to make money and compete to do so. Firm A cannot "trust" firm B not to make deals that increase firm B's market position at the expense of firm A. In fact firm A should expect this. Japan wants to be the global hegemon (as do all nations, just as all firms want to be number 1 in the market place). To do this Japan will make policies to increase its power relative to America. The way "trust" was used in this thread seemed to imply that Japan could only be "trusted" in so far as it remains weaker than the US and does not try to be stronger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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