On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 8:39 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > On 11/18/2013 9:44 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > You seem to be arguing against a straw man here. I explained why the free > market can't fix the tragedy of the commons. You haven't answered my point. > > > And he's so concerned with anti-government straw men that he hasn't noticed > that a market requires government (including coercion) to define ownership > and punish fraud. Without government you couldn't own any more stuff than > you could carry and defend by force of arms. > > > I agree with Brent. Government can be the best thing a democracy can have, > ... until bandits get power and perverts the elections and the state power > separations (and get important control on the media, etc.). > > But we should make clear that a government has nothing to say about your > food, medications, sports, religious or sexual practices, etc. As long as > there are no well-motivated complains, the state can't intervene. > > > So you think it's a bad idea for the government to require testing > medications for safety.
The problem is always the same, the government has no incentive to protect you, but a lot of incentive to protect lucrative businesses. Crazy stuff is not only allowed but actually encouraged, like giving a powerful nervous system stimulant to kids whose brains are still developing, with little research on the long-term effects. This drug is prescribed, by the way, because kids are bored in school. What a shocker, must be a disease. Ritalin makes the kids more compliant and productive. A bit creepy if you think about it, no? Meanwhile paracetamol is mixed with other drugs like pain-killers and opiates, so that people that abuse them get sick in horrible ways. > You liked the old "patent medicine" system better? > You don't like the government requiring food labels with contents? How > about airline safety requlations; why not just let the customers decide > based on reputation (that's what libertarians want)? You talk as if there are only these two options. I also prefer to buy food that comes with a label of contents. Apparently, both you and me would prefer products with such labels. So there's a market for it, right? Then certification: private certification companies would have less incentives to lie, because once they are caught lying they lose our trust and consequently their business. In the current model, they are caught lying but nobody can show up and compete on better certification. Telmo. > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
