Quote from: Hungry ghost on October 08, 2012, 11:34 pmI don't really consider myself a socialist; although as you can probably tell I lean more in that direction perhaps than y'all (English really needs a second person plural distinct from singular 'you'. I propose we adopt 'y'all').Agreed. Y'all is a word I'm quite fond of. In my neck of the woods that's the plural form we adopted a LONG time ago, and its been working just fine for us. :DQuote from: Hungry ghost on October 08, 2012, 11:34 pmI'm taking that side of the debate because these free market ideas ( is that the right phrase? I was going to say "Agorism" but that refers to a particular branch does it?)As I just learned, Agorism is basically a means to an end, a path of libertarianism that encourages black market participation to take money out of the state controlled economy.Quote from: Hungry ghost on October 08, 2012, 11:34 pm   I have another question, which I am genuinely interested to hear your ideas on. If we do away with nation states and governments, how will we decide who owns the raw materials such as oil, iron ore, and indeed agricultural land. John Locke suggested that possession of goods comes through " mixing our labour with them" so that apples on the tree belong to everyone, but once someone picks them, he aquires ownership by the labour expended in doing so. This is a good starting point when dealing with 'a state of nature' but the modern situation is more complex. How would the transition be managed.Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't much if not most of the land from which those resources are drilled, mined, or harvested already privately owned by oil companies, mining companies, and farmers? I don't see anything wrong with the government auctioning off any resources they own to the highest bidder, or even to a buyer that the taxpayers vote to approve of. The money from those sales could maybe be returned to the taxpayers, or even better, used to help ease the transition in other problematic sectors such as defense from foreign invasion while a free-market military solution is in its infancy.Quote from: Hungry ghost on October 08, 2012, 11:34 pm     I'm going to go and read the article you suggest now.Excellent. Looking forward to your thoughts. :)