From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Mar 25 2003 - 07:34:34 MST
--- Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal@smigrodzki.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 21:40, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
>
> >
> > I still don't understand how all the smaller insurers wouldn't get
> gobbled
> > up into a big monopoly, which then has a monopoly on violence and
> can decide
> > to become a defacto government. How do you protect against this?
> >
> ### An insurance company has lower market entry costs than in the
> case
> of making a state (where you need to hack out a territory from other
> states by force, keep the people from fleeing). This should be
> sufficient to assure competition, especially since most people would
> switch to new providers long before the old one could consolidate its
> position. At least as long as there would be no major concentration
> of land held by one insurance agency, since this would make
> competition impossible.
Given the prevalence of organized criminal syndicates in informal
'insurance' rackets in the real world, what do you think will prevent
insurance companies in a libertarian society from having linebackers,
sharpshooters, and prizefighters for 'sales' agents and 'adjusters'???
There would be, after all, no state insurance commissioner to keep them
honest and non-violent toward each other.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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