Re: what if microsoft disobeyed the breakup?

From: Ross A. Finlayson (raf@tiki-lounge.com)
Date: Fri Jun 09 2000 - 08:09:31 MDT


Michael S. Lorrey wrote:

> Matt Gingell wrote:
> >
> > > Then government is optimal. Model the historical evolution of top-down
> > >> control as a bottom-up market process and the aggregate result of billions
> > >> of locally rational, self-interested decisions. If you don't think the best
> > >> political/economic system won the market, you're just another mistaken
> > >> experttrying to out-guess the emergent result.
> > >
> > >LOL.
> > >
> > >This is one of the places where I think anarchists are a bit clueless. A
> > >market can operate only in the absence of force. It works only because all
> > >of the decisions made by the participants are voluntary, and each
> > >participant makes local trade-offs in the way that best suits his own
> > >desires. The moment you introduce actors that have the ability to compel
> > >others to do things at gunpoint, this is no longer the case. Instead of
> > >evolving in the direction of satisfying the desires of all participants, the
> > >system then evolves to satisfy the desires of those who have access to force
> > >at the expense of those who do not.
> >
> > This is the argument for antitrust legislation, and I absolutely
> > agree with you.
>
> antitrust legislation merely changes the market to one where it evolves
> to satisfy those willing and able to bribe the government into breaking
> up their competitors. In an anarchy, everyone will be armed, so nobody
> has a monopoly on force, and nobody can force others to their bidding.

I don't think that's correct. In anarchy anyone who can exert force to gain will,
barring pacificists and particularly, sincerely moral people. It's called survival
of the fittest.

The government gets about a third of the GDP in tax income, they take a cut every
time you buy groceries or live on your own land, they take a cut when you are born,
drive, and die, they take a cut when you wed or split. The (U.S.) government spends
about 25% or more of its income on guns and other military spending, when we are not
at war, except for the government on its own people. The U.S. government imprisons
more than 2 million U.S. citizens for various founded and unfounded reasons, paid
for by the ones not literally shackled. I'm sure anyone can provide examples of
government waste.

The government needs correction like a choke-chain on a dog or some excisement,
because parts are ferally malignant.

Overtaxation, overimprisonment, unequal treatment under law, and institutionalized
infringements of rights are examples of bad government.

There are good things about good government. Most roads and public thoroughfares are
well kept.

Ross



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