[extropy-chat] Re: Ethics and evolution

[David Lubkin]

Technotranscendence wrote:

>But this should be true of any society and people typically develop, 
>when given the chance, ways of spotting the charlatans.  E.g., word 
>of mouth works wonders when it comes to auto mechanics.  Why is 
>that?  It's not an example of the state coming in or of anti-fraud 
>activists.  It's just people naturally not wanting to be cheated and 
>also realizing that everyone is not an automotive genius, yet 
>finding ways to spread information in a spontaneous fashion.

Gas prices have soared.

The government response was (in part) to decry "price-gouging," and 
encourage people to report "artificially inflated" gas prices at 
http://gaswatch.energy.gov/ .

This is an evil concept. Government should stay out of prices. 
Government attempts to manage prices don't work and are inherently 
immoral. In a free market, "inflated" prices are self-correcting.

On the other hand, some clever mind devised and rapidly implemented 
http://www.gasbuddy.com/ , which is a simple and effective way of 
accelerating price-correction.


-- David Lubkin.