[ExI] Yet another health care debate

[Damien Sullivan]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 02:05:55AM -0700, Samantha Atkins wrote:

> People can band together and have for common defense.  They band  
> together in many ways for various common needs and to smooth out the  

Yes, they can and have.  Then they run into free ride problems of those
who benefit without contributing, and may re-invent taxes to solve the
problem.

> >Why can't that be private?  Some of it could, but there's lots of free
> >rider problems.  Some of it can't be -- "what should the outdoor
> >temperature be?" is an inherently collective decision.
> 
> What for?  If you can control the weather then micro-climates should  
> not be that big a step.  

How on earth do you imagine that?

> And I think you will agree that is a pretty  trivial example.

Ummm... no?  Global warming is but one example, and hardly trivial by
itself.  Global and regional temperatures, sea levels, whether rainfall
is stimulated to fall here or there, and so many things can affect
these.

> There were many ways to address pollution and many were used, not just  
> government force.    Costs are never completely private.  This does  
> not mean they cannot be factored into market decisions instead of  
> being matters of State fiat.

How, then?  Especially efficiently.

> A bunch of libertarians can sue ill-behaved neighbors just fine or  
> simply shun them until they either become more reasonable or move  
> elsewhere.

So if A is polluting the air, someone should bear 100% of the cost of
suing them in order to decrease the 1/N pollution they themselves
suffer?  This is not efficient.  Especially when everyone is polluting
the air, as with leaf burning or cars, so you'd have everyone suing
everyone else.

> No one has the right to harm others except in self-defense.  This  
> flows straight out of the Non-Aggression Principle.  Poisoning a  
> common resource we both depend on is most certainly a form of  
> aggression and quite actionable by libertarians.

So we should *shoot* car owners.  Got it.

-xx- Damien X-)