[extropy-chat] The Hidden Luddite was Re: peak oil debate

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 9 02:01:30 UTC 2005



--- Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:

> --- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:
> > Business has no way of legally initiating force against anyone.   
> > Governments do.  This is the crucial and often overlooked
> difference 
> > in a nutshell.
> 
> Ah, but is it force to lie to someone and sell them poison when they
> think they are purchasing food? 

Poisoning is illegal. We are talking about LEGAL FORCE. Try another
strawman.

> Is it force to make sure that
> customers have access to complete (or as complete as possible)
> information about a company before doing business with them? 

Depends on what information you are trying to give them. If your claims
about a company you make in disclosures to the public meet the legal
definition of libel, slander, or contractual violation of
confidentiality agreements, it is you who are illegally using force.

> What if
> most companies view it in their self-interest not to give out
> information, such that mass refusal to do business with the secretive
> (the market's way of punishing this) is not a practical option? 

Depends on what information you are looking for. If you are fishing for
the intellectual property of a competitor, you have no standing to make
demands, and any attempt to get their information is theft.

> And
> if businesses then initiated force, but made sure the general public
> never knew about it, hiding it in the generally-accepted secrecy...

If a customer of a business is initiated against, he has standing to
pursue redress through the legal process for the tort committed against
him. If the customer chose to not inform the rest of the public about
his or her private commercial relationship with the company and its
legal fallout, that is their business, not yours. Caveat emptor.

> 
> This is the kind of situation we were discussing. 

You have yet to provide a convincing case. Try again.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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