[ExI] Brief correction re Western Democracies [WASI am Call To Libertarians]

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2011/2/22 Alfio Puglisi <alfio.puglisi at gmail.com>:
> > On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>
> >> Some libertarians go so far as to shorten this list to Army, Courts
> >> and Police. There is no reason today for all roads not to be toll
> >> roads IMHO. Why not regulate, then privatize prisons?
> >
> > Because it creates an incentive to incarcerate people? The more people in
> > prison, the more profits from prison management.
>
> Come on. I can hardly be described as a libertarian, but to argue that
> allowing private healh care services risks to encourage the deliberate
> spreadinng of epidemics by their managers or shaheolders,
> biowarfare-style, sounds as a rather bizarre and far-fetched argument.
>

When I wrote that private prisons would be an incentive to bogus
incarceration I was hypothesizing, but now I found out that it has already
happened:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

"Two judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael
Conahan, were accused of accepting money from the co-owner and builder of
two private, for-profit juvenile facilities, in return for contracting with
the facilities and imposing harsh sentences on juvenile offenders in order
to ensure that the detention centers would be utilized"

In southern Italy, a significant percentage of fires are started by seasonal
workers employed in fire-fighting. Apparently to make sure that they will
not be unemployed:

http://www.sisef.it/iforest/show.php?id=521

One could argue that those two judges, and the arsonists, are just
criminals. Now for some laws:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

"What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass
Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the
private prison industry."

I don't know much about NPR, and how reliable this information can be. But
the very fact that something like this have been suggested is troubling and,
in my opinion, entirely predictable precisely because of the profit motive.
Now don't get me wrong: I regard human greediness as a completely natural
trait which came into being for obvious evolutionary reasons. This doesn't
mean that it is good or bad, just that it exists, and that it must taken
into account. The role of regulation is to make sure that profit incentives
are aligned with public interest. Like original IP laws, for example
(nevermind the last ridiculous incarnations).


Alfio
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