It is legal for a person to hire me at $5.25 per hour, and bark orders at me and measure my every movement, but it is illegal for someone to hire me for twenty-five cents less and treat me with more consideration and respect. Even if I would prefer to be hired into the latter situation.

What kind of nonsense is this? Is it illegal for me to say, "Two dollar prize to the first person who performs such and such task"?

Gaia Brain political philosophy embraces the principle of no first use of force by government. A primary role of government is to mediate interactions between individuals and corporate entities on the one hand, and the larger community on the other. If the terms of transaction for individual use of commons resources involves payment to the people at large for the privilege of appropriating the publicly-owned resource, this payment can serve as a guaranteed minimum income, and the state can dispense with any involvement in setting a minimum wage.

This 'libertarian/democratic ownership of the commons' paradigm rejects any supposed authority of government to dictate terms of association among free citizens, and it eliminates the need for such involvement in the name of poverty prevention.

The Constitution guarantees us all the right of free association.

Some people disparage 'right to work' laws as a ploy by vested interests to keep disadvantaged workers from organizing to promote their economic interests. I wonder if we really need a law to guarantee us the right to work, or more accurately, the right to refrain from joining an organization which we choose not to join. Surely the right of free association includes the right to not associate.

The libertarian principle of 'no first use of force by government' would prevent any government interference in the drawing of contracts between employer and employee. If citizens are concerned that some people are living too close to the precarious edge of abject poverty, perhaps they ought to object to the current practice of allowing established vested interests to take natural resources and pollute the people's air and water without compensating the people in proportion to the value of the public resources they use.

Gaia Brain: democratic ownership and free market management of natural resources

Cronkite for President - Can we find someone, (someone over 35 years old), who we could most all agree on for our next President?

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