Classical Liberalism

[Tiberius]

And you say my posts are "imaginary conversation". Honestly man, you screwed up when you started using numbers.

My numbers were hypothetical. I never claimed they were accurate of any real company; I was using them to make the point about how consumers ultimately set the price of products. Companies could easily set their prices at unaffordable levels, but in doing so completely reduce their consumer base.

When I was a restaurant manager, our greatest profit maker was soft drinks (which is why I used them as an example). The large drink generated the greatest profit, especially if it was iced tea. Large sodas sold for .99 plus tax, which equaled to about $1.05 at the time. Our over head on the soda was $0.05. 95% profit margin on the drink opposed to overhead. And if it was iced tea, the over head was 1/100 of a cent. The profit was 99.99%. You claim I am posting "imaginary conversations" (which is some ways I am) but I can easily toss out some REAL numbers that I have experienced. You make it seem like these Cola companies are just making an honest living. In reality they make MAD profits through overcharging (something that libertarians smile upon) and then they bankroll that cash.

Clarify something for me. You said that the overhead on soda was $0.05, and you made a 95% profit on it. In other words, you bought the cola syrup from the Coca Cola company for $0.05 a pop, and sold it for $0.99. So how exactly is Coca Cola the company doing the "overcharging" here? Surely it is your restaurant that is putting the price up to $0.99, and therefore making the larger profit? I don't see any problem in it either way; if people are perfectly willing to pay $0.99 for a large soda, there isn't any reason not to sell it to them for $0.99. It's not overcharging; it's good business.

Now this is where you say; "But people dont have to buy the product..they can set their own prices". Well, yeah, if that were the case. Coke PAC contributes hundreds of thousands of political donations to BOTH PARTIES in EQUAL AMOUNTS, or close to equal amounts.

This PDF shows all of the political contributions to ensure that no matter WHO wins the elections, that Coca Cola's corporate interests come first before the actual electorate. Libertarians say this is okay. It is their companies money, and they can spend it how they like. Well, thanks to libertarian minded people, we common folk no longer have a say so in our social or economic future. Why would a politician listen to us (who are forced to pay them regardless, but cant line their pockets with more money) when Coke tosses BOTH parties cash to run their parties? Coke is screwing the public on prices, then using that money to take our politicians away from us so that they only pay attention to Coke. THAT is what libertarians want, and that is what libertarians do..and just because you say "but they arent libertarians"...last I checked this is ALL alowed on the libertarian political platform. So therefore, libertarians allow it, and they stand behind it. Try to say I made a strawman again.

It is a complete strawman, and for the following reason:

Libertarians believe in a completely free market; i.e. one in which the government does not control the market through regulation, but rather through policing (as theVOID has explained multiple times).

In a Libertarian system, Coca Cola could donate to a particular party, but it would be unconstitutional for any government party to give benefits or other economic relief to them. You really need to actually stop and go and read about Libertarianism before you continue this conversation. No true Libertarian (by the definition of Libertarianism) would allow a company to influence government policy on the economy, just as no true Secularist would allow a religious group to influence government policy on anything.

Progressives are against this. Progressives are against corupt business interfering in our political system with corupt politicians. Money = power = social influence. Libertarians love that this happens.

No they don't. I don't know how I can make that any clearer. If Libertarians really are FOR businesses interfering in politics (beyond simply donating to political parties or supporting specific acts of government) then I'm not a Libertarian; I'm something else. However, I have never come across a single actual Libertarian (by the definition) who supports corruption, mainly because it would be like finding a vegetarian who eats beefburgers every night. Your assertion that all Libertarians support corruption is absurd.

Libertarians talk social and economic freedom, but in reality they smile upon companies like Coke controlling our political system. Because libertarians are about economic libertarianism as their main driving force, not social libertarianism. Profit is their main driving force.

From Wikipedia:

According to the [US Libertarian Party], libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

(Bolding mine for emphasis at how absurd your statement was.)

You keep denying that you are using strawmen, and yet I can easily show this to be a blatant lie. I'm not sure what your game is here; whether you just want to get theVOID and I riled up, but it's not going to work. We know what our political positions are; we know what we support. You can't convince us that white = black.

Where ever our millitary goes. Coka Cola is there to be sold. So why would Coke want a stop to this war? So now we have one corporation, who's product is innocent enough, but whos intent is to make profit, control our government and ultimate sacrifice the lives of our military in order to get their product more easily distributed. We pay the price with our money and lives, and Coke gets all of the power and profit.

So either stop buying Coke (and get everyone else to as well), or vote in a party that doesn't support this behaviour; i.e., a party that advocates the government staying out of business and the economy. If you read the Libertarian manifesto, you will see that they do not support businesses buying politicians, but in fact support a free market in which the government cannot step, meaning that Coke can't petition the government for help, or tax breaks, or anything.