X-Message-Number: 22916
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:50:46 -0600
From: Ken Wolfe <>
Subject: Re: Still Wanting to See the Libertarian System
References: <>

Mike Perry wrote:
> Message #22913
> Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 11:27:18 -0700
> From: Mike Perry <>
> Subject: Still Wanting to See the Libertarian System
> 
> Jerry Searcy, #22902, makes a good point that non-consensual force, fraud, 
> and breach of contract should be prohibited by law. Let's add theft to 
> that, too. He says that's all that should be enforced by the government, 
> and "a small sales tax" could support the necessary enforcement agency 
> (police force). Otherwise we could go about our business and not have to 
> worry about the government, because the private sector would take 
> responsibility for things like roads, schools, and welfare. Well, this 
> certainly sounds good. But once again, I don't think it has ever worked on 
> any sizable scale, and I again raise the issue of whether there is 
> something in human nature that makes it unlikely it would work.
> 
> Mike Perry

You might want to read The Efficient Society: Why Canada is as Close to Utopia 
as it Gets, by Joseph Heath. He makes much use of the Prisoner's Dilemma to 
show how and why markets inevitably fail in many different realms of human 
society. Here's one really nice example: In Holland, a law was passed 
forbidding trucks from using the passing lanes on highways, to prevent trucks 
from changing lanes to pass other vehicles. This was done to try and improve 
highway safety. What they also found is that it reduced the transit times of 
both cars *and* trucks using the highways. Forbidding truck drivers from 
passing slower vehicles - something which would seem to be in their own 
self-interest - actually reduced the travel times on Dutch highways both for 
trucks and for everyone else. Heath's main theme is that a free market is far 
from being a natural, self-maintaining state: it is an unnatural construct of 
human society, and like any social construct it requires constant management 
and intervention to keep it from falling apart.

-- 
Ken Wolfe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

http://www.mts.net/~kenwolfe/

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22916