Hacker News Reader

Comment by gred | Hacker News Reader

> Unfortunately a non-negligible number of people in tech also have libertarian leanings

Why is this unfortunate? Because you don't agree with us? The "they would agree with me if they were smarter" trope is tired and gets us nowhere.

View on HN

> Why is this unfortunate?

GP answered your question, for some reason you decided to cut the quote right before the answer. Here is the part that is missing from your quote which answers your question: '[...]with a default “gubmint bad!” position'

Pretty clearly implying the diminished mental capacity which prevents us from agreeing with him, no? I addressed this above:

> The "they would agree with me if they were smarter" trope is tired and gets us nowhere.

Some people have a default “gubmint gud business bad” position and assume that disagreement is only possible if you’re a brainwashed bootlicker.

I say that’s unfortunate

Perhaps you should consider the possibility that the reason why libertarians assume a default "gubmint bad!" reaction to new policy interventions is that they are sensitized due to decades of experience seeing multitudes of government interventions both (a) to achieve their intended outcomes and (b) create unintended consequences, often worse than the problems they are meant to solve, instead.

Personally, I find it very very strange that many of the people who call for regulation as a remedy to perverse incentives manifest in commercial markets seem unwilling to recognize the existence of even more perverse incentives in the political realm. If people seeking profit sometimes do bad things to get it, why would people seeking political power be expected to behave differently?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com