On Wed, 15 Jun 1994, Rich Lethin wrote:
Noam Chomsky spoke here in January and made the point that the increasing mobility of capital increasingly holds governments hostage. He felt that it was the current greatest danger to democracy, because it bypasses any leverage voters might have on politicians at the ballot box.
If I withhold my capital from some country or enterprise I am not threatening to kill anyone. When a "Democratic State" decides to do something, it does so with armed men. If you don't obey, they tend to shoot. I know this may violate the cypherpunks politics alert threshold, but people out there have to realize that if technological change enhances the powers of individuals, their power is enhanced no matter what the government does. If the collective is weakened and the individual strengthened by the fact that I have the power of cheap guns, cars, computers, telecoms, and crypto then the collective has been weakened and we should ease the transition to a society based on voluntary rather than coerced interaction. Unless you can figure out a new, improved way of controlling others; you have no choice. DCF "1000 idiots are not an improvement over 1 idiot."