Marcy,
Excellent question.
IMHO, the most important goal of the LP is education--spreading the ideas of Liberty and creating a critical mass.
Thomas Paine had the right idea.
Shall we make this question an agenda item?
Warm regards, Michael
Hi Starchild and Michael,
My question was pretty direct, and no, I did not say anything about "our".
Michael, if we have time for philosophical discussion at the end of the items already on the agenda (which would mean to me that we ran out of thing to plan and DO), then OK by me.
Marcy
Marcy,
If not our political party, then did you mean all political parties? I can't tell you what the goals of all political parties are, because I don't think all political parties have the same goals. That was kind of the point of my initial post.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hi Starchild,
Oh, I was just being difficult, since you and I have had that discussion 95 time before. But, since I can't resist repeating myself, here it is again. The goal of all political parties is the same -- elect candidates and affect legislation; just as the goal of all business is the same -- sell goods and services. And again, different political parties have different strategies for achieving those goals, such as for example squeezing all the self reliance and initiative from voters in order to render them dependent on the party's largess. What are LPSF's strategy for accomplishing those goals?
Marcy
Marcy,
So if you lived in an era before anyone had ever heard of venture capitalists, and someone came to you and said, "I'm going to go into business to make money by investing in promising companies -- do you have any advice for me?", you would've told them, "You can't do that! The goal of a business is to sell goods or services!"
At the risk of repeating myself, I believe our goal as the Libertarian Party is what it says in our platform, "nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime," and that things like electing candidates and affecting legislation are not the goal, but simply means to that goal. I further believe that there are other means available to us, and that we should think creatively about what all those other means might include.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hi Starchild,
We will never agree on this subject, and that is OK by me. BTW, is venture capital a business? Besides, was there not always venture capital; say when one neighbor gave his stone flint to another neighbor who said he had this great idea of shaping a stone into something they both could use to roll things around?
Marcy
--- In lpsf-discuss@...m, Starchild <sfdreamer@...> wrote:
Marcy,
I do have what it says in the LP platform backing me up in this case, but we can certainly agree to disagree, and I appreciate your civil and respectful tone as always.
Regarding venture capital as a business, I'm sure some people have always helped other people get things done by providing helpful resources, just as I'm sure some people have always cooked food for others, but like restaurants and catering firms, the business model of providing businesses with start-up capital as a way to make money is probably a somewhat more recent phenomenon.
That would be my tentative definition of a business -- when someone initiates an organized and deliberate plan to make money, as opposed to simply being helpful on an informal basis or participating in someone else's plan (i.e. working as an employee). Venture capital is widely considered a business -- see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_venture_capital_firms.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))