Author: WyattPitts

My teacher in Government 1A has asked me to write about any chapter I have read from How to ARGUE with a LIBERAL… AND WIN!, with the topic “How could voluntary arrangements solve this problem if the state did not impose the politics of plunder?” I have chosen the chapter “Government should control prices, but not people.”

This cannot happen because the government cannot control the prices without controlling the people. Price controls are basically the prices that the government tells stores to sell their products at. It’s also when the government tells tells people how much of something they can buy. This normally happens during a war or inflation. If the government tells people how much they can sell stuff for isn’t just price control, but it’s also people control. 

How could voluntary arrangements solve this problem if the state did not impose the politics of plunder? You could budget and you could save your money and not waste it on junk that you don’t need

How was Don Quixote’s knight-errant oath in conflict with his deathbed oath? According to Wikipedia, “Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world’s pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote, a work often cited as both the first modern novel and “the first great novel of world literature”.” This book is not read as much as it used to be and people almost never finish unless their instructed to. 

This book is about an old man named Don Quixote who loved to read about the medieval age. This included knights, castles, and things like that. He reads so much that eventually loses his mind and believes that it’s all real. He decides that he wants to be a knight so he polishes some old armor that has been in his family for a long time. He also cleans a sword and takes an oath of knighthood. Most of the book is about Don Quixote traveling and making a fool of himself. More than once he mistakes travelers for magicians and tries to kill them. The most famous scene is when he mistakes windmills for giants even though his squire/best friend tells him that their windmills. Don Quixote doesn’t listen to him and charges at the windmills. The windmill knocks him off his horse and he gets up realizing that the “giants” were windmills. After a long time of things like this he finally returns home saying that he will be a sheep farmer for a year. When he gets back home he lays in bed, falls asleep, then wakes up a few days later. His family calls a doctor who says that he is dying. On his deathbed Doc Quixote comes to his senses and makes an oath. In his oath he repents of his sins and dies a happy man. 

How was Don Quixote’s knight-errant oath in conflict with his deathbed oath? In his oath of knighthood, he swears to protect the weak and uphold justice, but he does a lot of questionable things because he lost his sanity. In Don Quixote’s oath of repentance, he is on his deathbed, and he comes to his senses. In his oath, he realizes his sins, he repents of his sins, and he dies a very happy, new man.

Mannerism and the Baroque. According to Wikipedia “Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it.” Mannerism comes from the Italian word maniera which means style. According to Wikipedia, “The Baroque was a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s.”

Peter the Great. According to Wikipedia, “Peter I, most commonly known as Peter the Great, was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 to 1721 and subsequently the Russian Empire until his death in 1725, jointly ruling with his elder half-brother, Ivan V until 1696.” Peter spent some of his life looking for ideas to help improve Russia. Whenever he became king he did almost everything differently. For example, almost everybody had a beard, but Peter made it illegal to have a beard unless you pay a fine. 

Frederick William. According to Wikipedia, “Frederick William was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as “the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements.” 

According to Wikipedia “Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of goods even during shortages, and to slow inflation, or, alternatively, to ensure a minimum income for providers of certain goods or to try to achieve a living wage.” Price controls are basically the prices that the government tells stores to sell their products at. It’s also when the government tells tells people how much of something they can buy. This normally happens during a war or inflation. According to Investopedia, “The term “price controls” refers to the legal minimum or maximum prices set for specified goods. Price controls are normally mandated by the government in the free market. They are usually implemented as a means of direct economic intervention to manage the affordability of certain goods and services, including rent, gasoline, and food. Although it may make certain goods and services more affordable, price controls can often lead to disruptions in the market, losses for producers, and a noticeable change in quality.”

People control is when someone tries to control someone else by means of force, threat, and bribery. The government controls people everyday. A few years ago a not so deadly sickness (covid) broke out and the government told everyone to stay in their houses because they would die if they got covid, even though only very unhealthy people were. 

Price controls are people controls. Yes. As I said earlier “Price controls are basically the prices that the government tells stores to sell their products at. It’s also when the government tells tells people how much of something they can buy. This normally happens during a war or inflation.” Telling people how to set their prices or how much things to bus is controlling them. 

Was Lady Macbeth correct? ‘What’s done is done.’ This is a phrase from William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. According to Wikipedia “William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.” According to Google books, “Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, and presents a man’s conscience and the effect of guilt on his mind. A dark and bloody play, Macbeth explores reality and illusion; witchcraft and the supernatural; ambition and kingship; the natural order; light and life, darkness and death; blood and dead babies.” This play begins when three witches prophesied to Macbeth that he will become king if he kills the original king. Macbeth got encouraged by his wife to do this so he did. Soon there is a civil war to overthrow Macbeth. At the Battle of Lumphanan Macbeth is killed by Malcom who is the son of the king of Scotland. Why is this play so famous? According to Study.com, “Macbeth is still very relevant today as it tells us about the role of jealousy, greed and overarching ambition in the downfall of men and women. Many students read this drama to realize how self-defeating it is to be led by these emotions.” People read this play to try  and figure out how to avoid the emotions of these characters in the play. 

Was Lady Macbeth correct? ‘What’s done is done.’ Lady Macbeth says this in the third act whenever Macbeth is felling guilty about killing people. Lady Macbeth also feels guilty about these murders up until her suicidal death. 

Was Lady Macbeth correct? ‘What’s done is done.’ Yes. You cannot change the past so don’t focus on the past. It almost never effects your future. She was right to say this, but wrong to conspire to kill the king. She felt so guilty about this, it led to suicide. 

According to Wikipedia “Mercantilism is a nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. In other words, it seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources for one-sided trade. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, protectionism, currency manipulation, and tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal.”

The War of the Spanish Succession started when King Charles II of Spain died childless. In his will he left his throne to Philip, Duke of Anjou, grandson of King Louis XIV of France. England, Holland, Prussia and Austria thought that this would jeopardize the balance of power in Europe.  A war broke out and Philip still sat on the throne when it ended. 

According to Wikipedia, “The Edict of Nantes was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity.”

Who should have the authority to set prices, the free market or the state? Why? according to the Dictionary, the free market is “an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.” The state is “a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government.” 

The prices of products are determined by supply and demand, buyers against buyers, sellers against sellers. Sellers compete against each other to have better prices and products. Buyers compete against each other to get the better products and prices. However important an object determines its price. 

Who should have the authority to set prices, the free market or the state? I believe that the free market should have the authority to set prices. The free market should choose the prices because they’re the ones selling the products. If the state controlled the prices of things, then all stores would have to sell the same thing for the same price. After a while the could cause the economy to fall apart. If people create they’re own prices then that will create competition. Without competition the businesses won’t have any reason to improve even though they should. This causes the economy to more likely become worse than better. So far the free market is doing well without state prices, but they still have government regulations. Some do not, but most do. 

What were Cardinal Richelieu’s primary aims? According to Wikipedia “Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu , known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French statesman and clergyman. He became known as l’Éminence rouge, or “the Red Eminence“, a term derived from the title “Eminence” applied to cardinals and from the red robes that they customarily wear.” He had two goals Centralize the power in France, and opposition to the Habsburg dynasty.

What factors contributed to the decline of Spain? Some of these things were much of the economic activity was controlled by monopolies and state favoritism, expensive warfare, and revolts. 

What is constitutionalism? According to Wikipedia, “Constitutionalism is ‘a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law’.”

What do you think Hobbes’ main arguments are in the excerpts you read from his Leviathan? According to StudyMode Research, “The central thesis of Leviathan is the idea that in order for human society to function without widespread conflict there is a need for totalitarian rule in the form of a Leviathan, necessitated by man’s continual state of fear in a state of nature caused by limited knowledge of the outside world and therefore the intentions of other humans.”

Why has this theme remained popular since 1587? This theme is selling your soul to the devil. The basis of this story is a man that grew up in a Christian family makes a deal with the devil giving him special powers. According to Wikipedia, “Doctor Faustus (play) The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust. It was probably written in 1592 or 1593, shortly before Marlowe’s death.”

According to Faust.com “Using Mephistophilis as a messenger, Faustus strikes a deal with Lucifer: that he is to be allotted twenty-four years of life on Earth, during which time he will have Mephistophilis as his personal servant, and, at the end of which, he will give his soul over to Lucifer as payment and spend the rest of time as one of the damned in hell. This deal is supposed to be cemented in the form of Faustus’ own blood. Interestingly, at first his blood congeals, leading to second thoughts by Faustus. Mephistophilis brings coals to break the wound open again, and thus Mephistophilis begins his servitude and Faustus his oath.” For twenty-four years Faustus does evil things and at the end of these years Nobody had seen Faustus for a while so they looked for him in his house and found blood and body parts scattered across a room. 

Why has this theme remained popular since 1587? People like horror and selling your soul to the devil defiantly sounds like something that people would want to watch. 

According to Wikipedia “A subsidy or government incentive is a type of government expenditure targeted towards individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilising the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having access to essential goods and services while giving businesses the opportunity to stay afloat and/or competitive. Subsidies not only promote long term economic stability but also help governments to respond to economic shocks during a recession or in response to unforeseen shocks such as COVID-19.” So a subsidy is when the government gives money to the people to stop a problem. 

According to GEMET, state control is “The power or authority of a government to regulate or command industry, organizations, programs, initiatives and individuals.” According to Wikipedia, “State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run media are under editorial control or influence by the state or government.” State control is basically when the government tries to control everything that happens. According to Collins Dictionary, state control literally means “control by the government”.

Is it possible to have state subsidies without state control? No. In order for the government to give “free money” to people they have to take money from other people, and since nobody wants to have money taken from them the government forces then too. The government isn’t taking money from specific people though. They do it do everyone through something we all know as taxes. So overall the government is trying to control you and to do it they take your money.