From: Ian Goddard (i-am@symmetry.net)
Date: Wed Oct 29 1997 - 23:40:33 MST
John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
>
>>I think Kristen is exactly right to suggest that there's no
>>difference between large private and large government scenarios.
>
>I think the difference is like day and night. It's true that if a private
>company kept getting bigger and more powerful and if the competition kept
>getting smaller and weaker then eventually it would be fair to call it a
>government. I can't point to the exact point where this transition occurs,
>but I can't point to the exact point where day fades into night either.
IAN: I agree, and also that it's a fuzzy transition.
>>the only problems with gov't stem from the fact that it's so big
>
> The problem is it has no competition.
IAN: But that it has no competition
and that it's so big are attributes
of the same situation: monopoly.
In the case of gov't, a monopoly
of de facto land ownership.
>>>Me:
>>>Besides, land is not very important.
>
>>IAN: It's as important as owning all of it means owning the basis of
>>everything
>
>That sounds very 18'th century-ish, times change. As an Extropian you
>know that even the old cliche about land, "they're not making any more
>of it" is not true.
IAN: Yet virtually all Earth areas are
already claimed. We can build up or down,
or into or on top of water, but were still
within and dependent upon some preexisting
claims, until we become extraterrestrial
in a big way.
>You should also note that the richest man in the world did not
>make his money from land but from information.
IAN: Right, what you do on top of the
land is most important, and yet, don't
forget all those hard drives and such
not only rest upon land, but came from
land at some point. We're getting more
and more out of every once of land thanks
to the privatized division of ownership.
>>I'm just countering 100% anarchy. Minarchy.
>
>If it worked I wouldn't mind a small very limited government, but its
>been tried and it doesn't work because it refuses to stay small and
>limited.
IAN: But this time it's gunna work,
trust me... he he he. But hay, we
also stared with anarchy and look
where it got us. I think a system
with some primary rules can actually
slow down the growth of gov't. But
growth unfortunately seems the rule.
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