[ExI] External costs (was Re: are all cultures equivalent?)

[Aware]

On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 6:27 PM, Rafal Smigrodzki
<rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Aware <aware at awareresearch.com> wrote:
>
>> Doesn't this strike at the heart of the naive (pure) Libertarian
>> stance?  Isn't it almost always the case that real-world
>> inefficiencies impair the pure, frictionless free transactions upon
>> which the Libertarian dream depends?  If so, mustn't we rely on an
>> ever more efficient framework within which to conduct our "free"
>> market bargaining?
>>
> ### Well, the idea of using polycentric methods for the invention of
> laws and overall ordering of the society doesn't require frictionless
> transactions - the only condition needed to establish the superiority
> of a solution is the absence of better ones, not the achievement of in
> some way absolute perfection. Since I know that monopolistic
> production of law is extremely inefficient, all I need to posit is
> that the libertarian order is less bad, and it's very easy to find
> thousands of examples where bottom-up, non-violent solutions to
> problems (including coordination problems) are better than "solutions"
> imposed by fiat. The simplification I used in the present thread
> (absence of a tort complicating the situation) was necessary only
> because my interlocutors had problems with accepting the idea of
> inviolability of personal property, and it's very hard to talk about
> torts without first accepting property as a premise. Once you know how
> to think about property, torts can be dealt with by the polycentric
> system.

Thanks Rafal.  I see no disagreement at this level of detail or
principle, but I expect we'd reach an impasse of differing
interpretation at the level of individual versus group agency implied
by the polycentric "overall ordering" mentioned above.

- Jef