Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Private v. Public

A good business model requires several things. Among them are high volume and repeat customers. There are some components of society, however, where high volume and repeat customer are bad things. We don't want them in our jails. We don't want them in our hospitals. Which means that jails and hospitals should not be run as for-profit institutions.

Based on the principle: There are more important things than making money.

Monday, April 11, 2011

The Principles

Here is the starting list of principles. I reserve the right to add, delete, or edit at any time.
Some people may call that weaseling or flip-flopping. I prefer to call it learning.
  1. Your rights come from your innate human abilities to experience the world, create emotional memories, and make rational judgments. Your rights, in other words, come from your humanity. No government can give you rights. Some just take away fewer of your rights than others.
  2. You have the right not to be harmed.
  3. You have the right to free thought, and to expression of that thought.
  4. You have the right to make informed decisions about your health, well-being and safety.
  5. Hatred, fear and ignorance are the three great enemies of civilized society.
  6. There are more important things in the world than making money.
  7. There is a single, knowable history to this world. Corollary: Facts exist and can be used to make intelligent decisions.
  8. You have the right to complain about other people's actions only to the extent that they actually affect you.
  9. You are responsible for the things you do, but not for the things that are done to you.