Re: Government & Public Safety [was Re: kathryn's comments]

GBurch1@aol.com
Sat, 11 Sep 1999 17:34:29 EDT

In a message dated 99-09-11 17:29:25 EDT, bradbury@www.aeiveos.com (Robert J. Bradbury) wrote:

> I know that libertarians believe that these things should be handled
> by independent contractors and not by government but if they are then
> someone has to pay for the training/oversight/testing, etc. That
> someone is going to be the fair participants, so presumably you end
> up harming to some degree the people who you were trying to protect
> from the tyranny of government (because the tickets are now more
> expensive).

But Robert, consider the offset of taxes not paid!

> It would appear that a flaw in the libertarian approach is that
> in some cases, the government simply "passing a law" *is* the
> cheapest way to implement something. People acting in their own
> self-interest, will find the most efficient way to satisfy the
> law and increase public safety. On the other hand if you have
> the government manage the thing, it is bound to wind up inefficient.
> This only ends up getting mucked up when the incentives to cheat
> are really high like they are in the meat packing industry.

Robert, send me your physical mailing address off-list. I'm going to have Amazon deliver a copy of Virginia Postrel's latest book to you.

     Greg Burch     <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
     Attorney  :::  Vice President, Extropy Institute  :::  Wilderness Guide
      http://users.aol.com/gburch1   -or-   http://members.aol.com/gburch1
                         "Civilization is protest against nature; 
                  progress requires us to take control of evolution."
                                      -- Thomas Huxley