[p2p-research] Abundance Destroys Profit [was: Tick, tock, tick, tock… BING]

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd rate that as a highly improbably outcome.   Frankly, I'd be for it.  It
> isn't going to happen. If it did happen, the center of the country would be
> impoverished in a generation.


The Great Plains has been depopulating for decades. I don't know about
impoverished though, the demand for agricultural products hasn't been
waning and they produce a lot of export goods.


>> Non sequitur.  The President has no jurisdiction over individuals,
>> only the States. Even though the States have equal representation in
>> the Senate, the votes for President of the States is *still* weighted
>> for population.
>
> Each state is winner take all...that makes puny places matter
> disproportionately to their votes.


Each state is not winner takes all, though most are after a couple
centuries of trying just about every method you can imagine for
selecting electors. There are exceptions (e.g. Nebraska and Maine),
and it is up to the individual states to democratically decide how to
apportion their votes. The current system is a democratic outcome.


> These issues were settled in 1865 and in the Supreme Court.  These are
> standard parts of any constitutional law text in the US...long settled.  Not
> sure what you are getting at...but it isn't the case and hasn't been since
> the 19th century.


If you live in New England or some place like that, most people have
never heard of such a thing.  In the western US, it is better known
because it is exercised every decade or so by state and local
governments. Since so much land in the west is under Federal control,
there is a lot more friction and it comes up more. A "home rule"
county has an inordinate amount of legal authority in the US. Federal
agents in western states will often have a representative of the local
sheriff in tow. You also have States like Nevada denying access to
basic utilities to Federal facilities on Federal land to impede
Federal activity it disagrees with, possible because the State has
regulatory authority over these things within its borders. (The
perpetual Sagebrush Rebellion saga is littered with strange powers
being exercised by the states and counties in regard to land under
Federal control.)

This is one of the major headaches for FEMA. One of the reasons FEMA
did not operate in Louisiana during Katrina is that they did not get
immediate permission from that State. Contrary to widely held belief,
the Federal government can't just waltz into a state and setup shop,
Hollywood notwithstanding. Some locales pride themselves (perhaps
misguided) on the fact that they severely restrict the Federal
government from operating, so as a practical matter agents can't just
walk into any region and automatically expect that they will get
permission to operate.


> But the bribe part is right.  It is pork flows from big states to small
> states arranged by local senators.  The recent healthcare circumstances
> showed Louisiana selling a vote for 310 million.  This is old and standard
> Senate politics. Ever wonder why so many big military bases are in the
> South?  So many national parks in the West?  The sale was always a bribe for
> some national policy or other.


National parks are in the West because that is where all of the
park-worthy land is -- some of the very early ones were operated by
the States before the Federal version. The Federal institution was
partly created because the first national parks were in territories
with no local government to speak of. The national park system was
created around the existence of this land, not to deliver money. The
national forests are worse, being a very public point of conflict
between the states and the federal government. National parks are
hardly a good example of pork distribution.

Pork is one of the few points of leverage the Federal government has
over the States.  Look at how much weird stuff is tied to things like
the highway funds, and how the Federal government reacts when States
threaten to leave the highway fund reservation.

Over the long term, which military bases remain open is sometimes a
pork barrel decision, though most were created under pragmatic
war-time reasoning.


-- 
J. Andrew Rogers
realityminer.blogspot.com