[ExI] Capitalism is like a poker game

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Thu Apr 15 10:03:02 UTC 2010


On 4/14/10, Dan wrote:
> I think the real problem is not so much government as coercion.
> Government is merely the form this typically takes in society --
> usually being the most highly developed and organized institution
> of coercion is any society. And I think the solution is to de-legitamize
> all coercion, including government coercion. This would make it
> impossible for government to exist in the first place and also make
> all other forms of coercion marginal -- the equivalent of petty crimes.
>
>


I don't think you can ever get rid of coercion without changing the
nature of the human species.

'Government' coercion (of some kind) is essential for civilization.

I am reminded of the article about 'feral cities' where law and order
has broken down.

<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_4_56/ai_110458726/>

Quotes:

Feral cities - The New Strategic Environment
Naval War College Review, Autumn, 2003 by Richard J. Norton

Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a
vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban
environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense
petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the
rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only
security available is that which is attained through brute power.

 The putative "feral city" is (or would be) a metropolis with a
population of more than a million people in a state the government of
which has lost the ability to maintain the rule of law within the
city's boundaries yet remains a functioning actor in the greater
international system.

In a feral city social services are all but nonexistent, and the vast
majority of the city's occupants have no access to even the most basic
health or security assistance. There is no social safety net. Human
security is for the most part a matter of individual initiative. Yet a
feral city does not descend into complete, random chaos. Some
elements, be they criminals, armed resistance groups, clans, tribes,
or neighborhood associations, exert various degrees of control over
portions of the city. Intercity, city-state, and even international
commercial transactions occur, but corruption, avarice, and violence
are their hallmarks. A feral city experiences massive levels of
disease and creates enough pollution to qualify as an international
environmental disaster zone. Most feral cities would suffer from
massive urban hypertrophy, covering vast expanses of land. The city's
structures range from once-great buildings symbolic of state power to
the meanest shantytowns and slums. Yet even under these conditions,
these cities continue to grow, and the majority of occupants do not
voluntarily leave.

-------------


Doesn't sound much like libertarian heaven to me.


BillK



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