[ExI] Americans are poor drivers

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 2:37 AM, Stathis Papaioannou<stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/7/9 Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com>:
>
>> ### Are you asking if I would buy these shares in an initial public
>> offering?
>
> No, that would be a quite different situation. The shares are issued
> to everyone for free, with the option of voting to change the
> structure so that they can be sold and accumulated. You assume that
> the shareholders would vote to do this, and maybe they would. But they
> might also choose to leave things as they are, just as voters choose
> to leave some assets and organisations in public control and to
> privatise others. Now I understand that you think privatising
> everything is for the best, and perhaps you also think that left to
> their own devices people will decide to do just that. But what should
> be done if, foolishly, they choose to keep some things communally
> owned?
>
### You are begging the question: You posit that some group of people
may decide to use an accounting fiction to run their road system, you
implicitly assume the legitimacy of a democratic polity, and then ask
what to do. Well, obviously, if the people want to use an accounting
fiction, an accounting fiction they'll have, and by the implicit
assumption of legitimacy, this state of affairs cannot be changed
except by a vote, which you already precluded in the premises.

Am I clear?

Rafal

P.S. Of course, I refuse the assumption of democratic legitimacy,
since it is based on violence and is inefficient as well, so
personally I would endorse other actions to change the status quo -
but you didn't ask WWRD (what would Rafal do), you asked an impersonal
"what should be done".