I remember being terribly impressed by TANSTAAFL when I came across it in Heinlein. I think he was talking about the three laws of thermodynamics (also paraphrased elsewhere in poker terms as "You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't even quit the game").
Then I realised it was a pretty mean-spirited way for Libertarians to trash any form of support for anyone who wasn't them. So I'm a bit biased about it. I agree that if you look at any exchange between humans then you can find a little bit of extra value being picked up by one of them. And that's handy, if you're looking for fairness - I loved contract law for that very reason.
If you apply it everywhere then life seems to be a bit transactional...
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timeasmymeasure
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
Date: 2012-05-29 05:53 pm (UTC)Then I realised it was a pretty mean-spirited way for Libertarians to trash any form of support for anyone who wasn't them. So I'm a bit biased about it. I agree that if you look at any exchange between humans then you can find a little bit of extra value being picked up by one of them. And that's handy, if you're looking for fairness - I loved contract law for that very reason.
If you apply it everywhere then life seems to be a bit transactional...
(Oh, and I'm really enjoying these posts)