From: James Daugherty (daugh@home.msen.com)
Date: Fri Jan 23 1998 - 05:36:18 MST
Long ago Libertarians have solved the problem of the commons by eliminating the
commons and devising systems of private property to replace it....where have you
been?
James Daugherty
-----Original Message-----
From: Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: Thursday, January 22, 1998 5:29 AM
Subject: Re: Gov't Loves Gov't
|On Wed, Jan 21, 1998 at 09:39:26PM -0800, John K Clark wrote:
|>
|>>The day some libertarian thinker dreams up a non-coercive economic
|>>system that is not susceptive to the tragedy of the commons is the
|>>day I become a libertarian.
|>
|> You say that almost as if you think non libertarians have solved the problem.
|
|No; nobody has solved the problem. I assert, however, the libertarians
|_should_ be interested in the issues, because if they _can_ propose a
|workable solution they'll gain a lot of converts from among the (large!)
|body of people who agree that the current system ain't working, who
|don't like big government, but who don't think that an unrestricted
|free market is the ideal answer. Otherwise, all you're going to do is
|carry on preaching to the choir.
|
|>>Alternative: a political system that is not amenable to bribery,
|>>nepotism, or corruption and that follows the old dictum of kings that
|>>"he who rules best, rules least".
|>
|> Any political system will work perfectly in a population of brilliant saints,
|
|... which I think we agree the real world is sadly lacking ...
|
|> the difference is that the Free Market will work, not perfectly, but pretty
|> damn well even with real flesh and blood human beings, probably intelligent
|> machines too.
|
|It works better than any of the known alternatives, I'll concede that
|much. Question: why the hell isn't anyone looking for new, hitherto-unknown,
|alternatives?
|
|
|-- Charlie
|
| "Money is a symptom of poverty" -- Iain Banks
|
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