Protection racket? Nah. More like "I won't buy a lamp that's not UL-certified" or "I won't buy a novel that Oprah doesn't recommend." Kosher rating systems are a wonderful example of private reputation systems. There are hundreds of rating agencies; they seem to generally coexist -- folks who are sufficiently interested can rely on whichever they choose, or none at all. -Declan On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 09:34:43PM -0500, Neil Johnson wrote:
I was listening to a radio program on NPR (The cypherpunks favorite statist medium :) ).
They were discussing the problems with the certification of kosher food.
Evidently there are many different organizations with differing ideas on what it takes to be kosher.
They interviewed one restaurant owner who follows kosher practices and has been certified by a rabbi.
However, the local kosher certification organization says he isn't because he doesn't have a full time rabbi on staff in the kitchen (who just happens to HAVE to be from their organization). So most orthodox Jews won't eat there.
Kind of sounds like a "protection racket" to me.
Neil M. Johnson njohnson@interl.net http://www.interl.net/~njohnson PGP Key Finger Print: 93C0 793F B66E A0C7 CEEA 3E92 6B99 2DCC
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Choate" <ravage@ssz.com> To: <cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com> Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 8:57 PM Subject: RE: Making the Agora Vanish | OSINT distributed haven (Intellagora)
On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, David Honig wrote:
The diamond-trading jews of New York use reputation (ostracism from the community, centrally enforced by a council that rules their
voluntary
association) to handle 'arbitration'.
They're also responsible to the same law and license that every other diamond trader in NY is responsible to. This isn't a 'market' in the economic sense, it's an extension of their religion (clearly a non-economic aspect to their culture).
Jews also use a non-governmental USDA to keep their food clean.
Which again isn't really a 'market' per se since there isn't a statistical issue here. ALL Jews, as opposed to some percentage of same, technicaly require their food to be kosher.
They are particular mechanisms for the protection of their culture not an 'economic market' (though both have economic aspects). They don't do it to protect their income. They do it because they believe it's the 'right' thing to do, they are answering to a higher calling.
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