From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Nov 28 2000 - 10:47:28 MST
Chris Russo wrote,
> No, unless the industry is of vital importance to protecting the
> lives (and property rights) of the citizens of the country, like the
> military.
You've pointed to an important service of government. In addition to the
military industry, what about the banking industry? If the government
didn't "prop up" banks by providing police protection, gangs of thugs with
machine guns could take over all the banks. (wait, maybe they already did
that when I wasn't looking -- Bankster.com ?)
I don't think that means banks don't deserve to exist. (They may not
deserve to exist for other reasons, but not particularly because of
government "propping up" their security.) The same argument applies to
practically all industries at least to some degree. Without government
"propping up" Microsoft, bands of well-armed thieves could have taken over
all Bill's campuses long ago.
Anyway, you're not going to keep government from propping up industries.
The primary education industry (public education) would evaporate without
propping up by government. In this case, I might agree that this
particular industry does not deserve to exist.
"Hey, teacher! Leave those kids alone!" --Pink Floyd
And don't forget the prison industry. Does it deserve to exist? Probably
not. But government doesn't need to prop up such a lucrative (and sick and
wrong and ugly) industry. The privatization of US incarceration stands to
enslave tens of millions instead of the one million it presently does.
Investors are not difficult to find.
As for Gnutella, I don't think the problem relates to the dearth of
content, but rather with a lack of vision. Someone needs to present an
outline of what the new economy will do to improve the human condition,
not just how it will make money for infrastructure and content providers.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
"It is enough that the people know there was an election.
The people who cast the votes decide nothing.
The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:32:07 MST