While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

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I am beginning to believe that I am talking to a kid that has only heard what mommy and daddy had told them of a subject. Think for yourself for just one damn second, please. If you actually put any thought into this subject, you'll realize that not all governments are made up of volunteers. You'll also realize that people can volunteer to positions of power to do bad things to others. You'd also understand if you were actually ever a part of the armed forces of a country (As I was), that the process of basic training (or boot camp, for my experience) is designed (and effective) at taking away individualism within that particular force.

All the crap that went on during the new orleans disaster by our armed forces shows how likely our soldiers are to turn on their "fellow citizens". Pretty damn likely, because of the afformentioned brainwashing process that turns you from a volunteer soldier into a mindless order taking drone.

By your logic, we should all trust the police too. They're more citizens than our armed forces and are constantly abusing their position as "the authority", and recklessly killing people for little or no reason.

EDIT- Forgot to reply to the idiot that thinks I don't believe slavery should have been abolished? Not sure how me advocating abolishing the last known form of slavery (involuntary social contract) is somehow equal to bringing white slave owners back into power, but whatevs. Slavery could never have been instituted without the state actively enforcing it.
 
Amon Savag said:
I am beginning to believe that I am talking to a kid that has only heard what mommy and daddy had told them of a subject. Think for yourself for just one damn second, please. If you actually put any thought into this subject, you'll realize that not all governments are made up of volunteers. You'll also realize that people can volunteer to positions of power to do bad things to others. You'd also understand if you were actually ever a part of the armed forces of a country (As I was), that the process of basic training (or boot camp, for my experience) is designed (and effective) at taking away individualism within that particular force.

All the crap that went on during the new orleans disaster by our armed forces shows how likely our soldiers are to turn on their "fellow citizens". Pretty damn likely, because of the afformentioned brainwashing process that turns you from a volunteer soldier into a mindless order taking drone.

By your logic, we should all trust the police too. They're more citizens than our armed forces and are constantly abusing their position as "the authority", and recklessly killing people for little or no reason.

EDIT- Forgot to reply to the idiot that thinks I don't believe slavery should have been abolished? Not sure how me advocating abolishing the last known form of slavery (involuntary social contract) is somehow equal to bringing white slave owners back into power, but whatevs. Slavery could never have been instituted without the state actively enforcing it.
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I most certainly do not agree with mommy and daddy on this issue. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum from you. I have a university education in social history, so I know a lot more about this subject than someone who did IR. An autocrat would actually make me very happy.
 
I should expect as much from a self-admitted thug.
 
Amon Savag said:
I am beginning to believe that I am talking to a kid that has only heard what mommy and daddy had told them of a subject.
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Still haven't answered the question, I see.

What happens if, through a series of entirely free and consensual transactions, an insurance provider achieves monopoly power in a market and refuses to deliver services rendered?

What happens if they go to any competitors that start up, and say "I will give you ten million dollars, in gold, right now, to sell your company to me?"
 
Amon Savag said:
Monopolies are not a naturally occurring phenomenon in the market. Do your research and you'll see that.
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1.) What government intervention took place to form Standard Oil?

2.) How do you respond to the criticism that monopolies are actually the dominant strategy for firms in a competitive market?
 
1)Wow. Look it up.

2)They cannot be maintained in a free market. The only way to maintain your effective monopoly status is through coersion provided by government. Otherwise competition will have too much to gain from the act of competing.

If there is a monopoly on defense in this case, you would have someone like me starting an insurance firm that would hit the area where the monopoly can be hit. Either their prices are too high, quality is lacking, or services are lacking, or maybe the firm has abused it's power, or a combination (And if none of these areas are lacking, there's no reason to provide competition until one of these areas are lacking and I have an edge to attack the market on and that's not necessarily a bad thing). In order to buy me out, the monopoly has to fork over so much to buy me out. Then my neighbor, seeing that I just got paid a ridiculous amount of money for starting up a legitimate security firm does the same thing. At some point the monopoly has to look at the bottom line and see that buying out competition is too expensive at some point to legitimize as a smart business transaction.

I hope this particular example helps, I could have given a multitude of examples but hoped that this one would serve best to answer your previous question at the same time answering this last one.
 
Amon Savag said:
Talonschild, that is their prerogative to not "feel like it". Their personal defense insurance would take on the fight for them using premiums paid by that person and others that didn't feel like it.
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I'm sorry. It seems I've done a poor job of explaining my concerns. You assert confidently that
Amon Savag said:
there'd be plenty of people standing up for me in my libertarian paradise, and we'd all have tanks and anti-aircraft guns in our back yards waiting for someone like you or some government to try and own us.
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apparently without any evidence there would in fact be plenty of people who leap, unbidden, to your defence with expensive armaments.

I see no reason to share your faith. Could you tell me why you are so sure you would not be met with apathy instead?
 
Amon Savag said:
And there'd be plenty of people standing up for me in my libertarian paradise, and we'd all have tanks and anti-aircraft guns in our back yards waiting for someone like you or some government to try and own us.
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Wait, you'd all be able to afford tanks (~$4.2-6.7 million) and AA guns ($76~150 thousand)?

Wow, I guess anarcho-capitalism really IS the future.
 
Who needs training? Just hit the big red button that says "Kill Fascist Scum." Seems easy enough to me.
 
The issue is defence forms a natural monopoly because there is a very high entry cost, which prevents small firms without a lot of capital from starting up. Capital, in this case, being not just money, but also training. Private military contractors, for example, are almost universally composed of military veterans, because their business model is unprofitable if they have to train personnel from scratch, while the government is able to afford the high initial investment of teaching someone how to function in a modern military.

And yes, you can say "Why not just give them a gun and ten hours of training? More than the Taliban has!" Then you just have a really cheap, military that any of its competitors (i.e. governments) will bulldoze. No one enters a NASCAR race with a pinto.
 
To be fair to Amon Savag, just because an anarchistic society is not able to defend itself against an organized, governmental society does not mean it is not the moral society. But it is important to point out the difference between arguing that government is inherently, morally wrong, and arguing that not having a government will actually make society an invincible, perfect machine.
 
Crezth said:
To be fair to Amon Savag, just because an anarchistic society is not able to defend itself against an organized, governmental society does not mean it is not the moral society. But it is important to point out the difference between arguing that government is inherently, morally wrong, and arguing that not having a government will actually make society an invincible, perfect machine.
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Not sure I once said that anarchist society would be perfect. Nothing's perfect, but at least anarchist society would be more moral and beneficial to the individuals living under that system.

As far as tanks go, who knows exactly how much a tank's material and labor costs are? Those figures you pointed out are highly inflated from kickbacks and other government waste, in a very regulated market. I imagine the true cost to be much less. Training for these sorts of weapons is a course away. Not sure why anyone would think there wouldn't be instructors in the use of high tech weapons lol.
 
Amon Savag said:
Not sure I once said that anarchist society would be perfect. Nothing's perfect, but at least anarchist society would be more moral and beneficial to the individuals living under that system.

As far as tanks go, who knows exactly how much a tank's material and labor costs are? Those figures you pointed out are highly inflated from kickbacks and other government waste, in a very regulated market. I imagine the true cost to be much less. Training for these sorts of weapons is a course away. Not sure why anyone would think there wouldn't be instructors in the use of high tech weapons lol.
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So you're saying a government that heavily subsidizes the cost of weapon systems such as ours is somehow inflating the price of said weapons?
 
When you have 1 customer (The US government), and can influence politicians to make that customer pay whatever you want... Common sense dictates yes. But this isn't your field of expertise, Luckymoose. Stick to social issues, where your expert opinion is to have thugs violently hitting dissenters over the head.
 
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