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