From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:15:48 +0800
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Re: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the Foregone (fwd)
Message-ID: <199811110052.SAA21018@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Forwarded message:

> Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 11:13:07 -0500
> From: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
> Subject: Re: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the Foregone
>  (fwd)

> 	Really, you are saying they couldn't possibly recognize the
> benefits of teaming up and co-locating fire stations, or that they wouldn't
> sub-contract to a company that handled fires?

So, you want to sub-contract out which is going to raise the cost and
doesn't alleviate the insurance company from regulatory and supply issues.
It'd cost a fortune.

> 	This could still be more effcient than government.

I'd love to see your cost breakdown...

> 	"reasonable" in cost? There is a LOT if inefficiency in the system
> that competition could eliminate.

Yep, and a lot of people the competition would eliminate as well. I'll live
with the inefficiency as long as the cost is affordable for the quality of
service delivered. I don't mind fireman sitting around eating bar-b-q unless
somebodies house burns down.

> 	Read that last bit. They got so carried away, that they spent
> themselves out of existence.

That is one example, I know of several fortune 100 companies that are equaly
extravagant. The problem with Compu-Add was they shot their whole wad.

> 	Governments just raise taxes, there is no penalty for ineffcientcy,
> or lousy spelling.

Sure there is, it just takes longer than a rifle bullet to settle.

> 	Ok, so you limit the senators and congressmen, then the unelected
> beaureacrats have the power since they know the system and run the system.

Not at all, they are limited in what they can do by the laws. It's not like
they're running around sending bills to people out of the blue and making up
the system as they go along. Despite your protestations to the contrary the
system just don't work that way.

> 	Wearing a painted leather jacket & ripped up blue jeans is NOT a
> reason to get hauled off the street, searched and questioned.

If it happened to you and you didn't file a harrassment complaint then you
got what you deserved. If you don't use the system it won't work.

Never happened to me or anyone I knew unless they were in particular places
at particular times. If a cop busts people at a corner every nite for
breaking the law it isn't the cops fault, it's the stupid people who keep
doing the same damn thing at the same place knowing full well the consequences.

> 	Looking different is not illegal.
> 
> 	Thinking different is not illegal.

Nobody said it was and it isn't. Now if you happen to fit the description of
another perp well that's just too damn bad.

> 	With a bunch thrown in at the federal level. Federal Matching Funds
> & etc.

Oh, malarky (and stay away from my business books). It's obvious you never
do accounting. The matching funds are for roads outside of the city or for
highways that transit cities. They are not supposed to be used for city
street or FM or RM roads.

> 	Then why do they keep building them?

Because we still hav an Army whose job it is to defend this country you
nit-wit. If we didn't keep fixing them and expanding the system as people
move around and expand the Army might find it a tad hard to do their job
when called to it. And yes, I know the Militia is the one who is supposed
to be called in for that sort of stuff - that's a whole other topic.

> 	Promote does not mean "give away", it means "promote", do things
> which incourage.

Absolutely. While I agree that there are some particular issues that need
fixing in a major way that is not the same (as you would have us believe) as
saying as a result the whole system should be scrapped.

> 	They were the heads of the governments. The skills and abilities it
> takes to get to that level insure that the people who get there have no
> concern for those underneath them.

Oh, you mean insanity, egotism, neurosis, etc.?

> 	There is no making up my mind. I never claimed the a government
> could or should, rather I am claiming that it can't and won't, and to
> expect it to be able to, much less willing to is foolish.

Ah, but it does try and in some cases it succeeds. So my expectation is not
completely without merit.

> 	So we agree that any government is doomed from the start, since
> w/out people of honesty and integrity no system will work properly.

No, *all* people are not such. Most people I know are honest and have
integrity. What has to happen is a set of checks and balances, which we are
admittedly short of at the moment. The system isn't perfect, never claimed
to be (read the 1st paragraph if the Constitution), and if it remains so
then it's *OUR* fault and not the systems.

> 	No, that face that stares back from the mirror makes every effort
> to be as honest and forthright as it can. It causes grief sometimes, but
> it's the principle.

You claim to be honest yet promote a system that allows slavery, murder,
theft, and other horrendous crimes against man....


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