"Freedom" thread or something

I always use everything on a gift card. I just by slightly more than is on the card and treat it as a massive discount. What's so hard about that?

It sems like tha administration cost woud far outweigh the revenue. They would have to get every store that offers gft cards to keep records of how much balance was outstanding and when it expired and then transfer that amount to the government.

Expiry dates? On gift cards? Had to check that... and they do and the issuing company can charge a fee if a card is over a certain age... and in order to use up the value of the currency on the card, (that the issuer has already received cash payment for), you have to spend more than the face value of the card in the designated store. These guys are laughing all the way to the bank just so grannie can her exchange hard earned cash for a peice of plastic so that little Johnny has to spend his birthday money in JCPenney's and not on crack cocaine... and we still think consumer power will control a free market? pah!

I loathe gift cards.  How did we become so unimaginative?  If you have to give someone a piece of plastic cash as a gift, why are you bothering really?  It might be time to just shelve the gift giving thing. If you really have no idea what someone you love wants or needs, why not take them out to eat and give them a little time with yourself.

thellama73 wrote: Nobody has any guarantee of anything inn this world. Do you think there is a guarantee that your rights will be enforced in the current system? Ha!

No, but at least I have rights in the current system and there is an institution dedicated to protect those rights. In your system, such things as "rights" wouldn't even exist. In a society where there are no laws or other commonly agreed-upon rules, who's to say it's your right to do this or that?

thellama73 wrote: I find it odd that you assume that people are itching to war with each other.

I find it odd that you don't. Look at the world around you. People are having conflicts, often violent, about everything. This is a part of human nature, and abolishing the government won't change it.

thellama73 wrote: If your security firm is more powerful than mine, they would still be foolish to try to impose their will by force because every other security firm would rise up against them in order to protect their clients, and therefore their profits.

Why would any other security firm besides yours care? My security firm isn't doing anything to them.

thellama73 wrote: Much more money can be made by cooperating and ensuring that justice is done, since everyone has an incentive to pursue justice.

Who defines what justice is? If you steal my car, my security firm might decide to imprison you, it might decide to take your money, or it might decide to kill you. No matter what it does, your security firm will try to protect you from any of that and claim unfair treatment. A conflict between those firms would automatically ensue. It's like a legal case with two lawyers and no judge.

I

thellama73 wrote: also don't accept your premise that the poor would not see their rights protected. First, since this is a private property society we're talking about, anyone who owns a street would be wise to insure that street against theft and murder in order to encourage people to use it, so the poor would be protected on streets. Any landlord would be wise to insure his property, so the poor would be protected in their homes.

If the landlord insures his property, the rent will obviously increase because the insurance cost money? Where do the people live who can't afford such rents? Obviously, somebody is going to have the clever idea to offer cheaper homes without any insurance. Voila, now somebody can rob them without retaliation, and they can't do a thing about it.

thellama73 wrote: However, I operate under the principal that it is wrong to forcibly deprive innocent people of their property. The system I advocate is the only one consistent with that principle.

It isn't consistent with that principle at all. Just because there is no overarching institution that deprives innocent people of their property, that doesn't mean nobody else will do it. Not to mention that in the system that you advocate, innocence and property aren't universally agreed-upon concepts. Especially property: How do we decide what is whose property? By simply claiming it? What if two people claim the same item as their property? How is it decided whose property it actually is?

Dean wrote: I'd never buy one anyway because I'd not want to impose one "store" on anyone I'd be buying them for - same for Amazon vouchers (singularily most useless voucher system ever invented), but "no one's forcing you" is seldom an match winning argument, plenty of people are buying them whether they know they are a ripoff or not.

I'm not sure about Amazon UK but here in the US Amazon's gift card system works pretty well. I have been given some and they work well, the balance remains to be used whenever you want in your account.

You'd all go mental if the goverment issued dollar bills that were only valid for 12 months or banks kept any balance in your current account that has been in credit for more than 12 months. ("Well, you weren't using the money so you obviously didn't need it"). What next? Exxon Mobil comes and drains your gas tank at the end of the month because you hadn't used all the petrol?

Dean wrote: You'd all go mental if the goverment issued dollar bills that were only valid for 12 months or banks kept any balance in your current account that has been in credit for more than 12 months. ("Well, you weren't using the money so you obviously didn't need it"). What next? Exxon Mobil comes and drains your gas tank at the end of the month because you hadn't used all the petrol?

Dean wrote: You'd all go mental if the goverment issued dollar bills that were only valid for 12 months or banks kept any balance in your current account that has been in credit for more than 12 months. ("Well, you weren't using the money so you obviously didn't need it"). What next? Exxon Mobil comes and drains your gas tank at the end of the month because you hadn't used all the petrol?

Agreed. I'm just defending Amazon US gift cards and in general their fantastic service. If all companies were like Amazon in service and efficiency...

^I'd bet most big companies do at least treat their employees decently. If not, they wouldn't have many.