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Do you support mandatory disclosure to the public of all financial transactions involving authors?

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Boojatta Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-13-07 08:57 AM
Original message
Poll question: Do you support mandatory disclosure to the public of all financial transactions involving authors?
The thread at this link
Mr. Anonymous and the Not-So-Spontaneous Birth of the Libertarian "Movement"
provoked a thought.

Is it important for the general public to know the source of money that authors receive? Is it possible that wealthy people might secretly give monetary gifts to particular individuals and encourage them to write books that would be faulty but influential? In particular, is there a serious hazard that the books would influence voters to vote against civil liberties? On those grounds, is it thought necessary to sacrifice some civil liberties (specifically the privacy of authors) to preserve all the other civil liberties?

Perhaps someone will assert that it is important for the general public to know the source of money that authors receive when that information is in the public domain, but that it's not important for the general public to know it when the information is private.
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No Coercion Donating Member (16 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-16-07 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
1. slippery slope
On those grounds, is it thought necessary to sacrifice some civil liberties (specifically the privacy of authors) to preserve all the other civil liberties?


Certainly not. Civil liberties stem from the principle of non-initiation of force. It's an internally consistent principle, so it is never necessary to violate any particular civil liberty to preserve others. In fact, doing so is heading down a slippery slope towards the elimination of more and more freedoms. The government is already trying to do that--let's not make its job any easier.
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Boojatta Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-22-07 07:13 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Could you explain that?
Civil liberties stem from the principle of non-initiation of force. It's an internally consistent principle, so it is never necessary to violate any particular civil liberty to preserve others.

Suppose someone can help you win your court case. If that person has expert knowledge in some specialized field, then do your civil liberties guarantee that the courts will pay that person to show up in court?

Suppose a hundred people witnessed an event that becomes an issue in court. If it's unnecessary for all of them to be subpoenaed to testify in court, then would it be a violation of civil rights for all of them to be subpoenaed? How many of them can be subpoenaed without violating civil rights?
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