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

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 9:48 PM, Aware <aware at awareresearch.com> wrote:
> 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.

### More details? (if compatible with your wows of abstention from
wasting time :)

Rafal