Whether a protection racket actually offers real protection depends on who you are; a "client" (victim), "protector" (extorter), or a "competitor" (rival mob / government). The former would say "sometimes", the next would say "yes", and the latter would say "no". It's easy to see how the only honest answer would come from the client/victim. There's no doubt that protection rackets offer "official" protection and extort money; but they also offer "actual" protection to protect their source of revenue. Whether that actual protection is their "primary" service would also depend on the relative perspective. But even if the client/victim gives a less flattering answer on that question, the same could be said about government; since "primary" would be determined by the amount of money and victims extorted versus the amount of actual protection delivered. IOW: If you want to argue FOR government, please provide evidence that the amount of actual protection delivered is worth the amount of money forcefully taken through taxes and the amount of people forced to pay them at the point of a gun/prison.
"Too much fear will lead to rebellion or defection to other protectors." I'll give you that one. But the analogy holds. It's the same rule-of-thumb for government. It's interesting how you appear to argue against the better analogy, but defend the poor one. ------------------------ > >1) False. Each racket also protects payers from the real threat >of competing rackets... Not as their primary product, only as a secondary product. However, if the ratio shifts sufficiently to the point where protection against external threats is the primary product and protection against itself is non-primary, then I'd say that organization has gone from being a government to an extortion racket. >2) False. The more a racket flaunts their power to induce public >fear, the more readily their "clients" will pay up... Not necessarily. Too much fear will lead to rebellion or defection to other protectors. Tim Starr Fight for Liberty! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fightforliberty/
