-- At 02:36 AM 10/9/98 -0700, Matthew James Gering wrote:

Not really, the state holds a monopoly on "legal" force, whereas the Mafia and other black-market organizations do not. What is interesting is they use force often because they cannot use the government legal system to arbitrate their disputes.

It has been a very long time since we had an armed conflict between one major mafia type organization and another in the US. It appears to me that they have a problem because they cannot resolve their disputes in public, thus it is hard to tell the difference between an oppressive mafia organization that mistreats its clients, and a legitimate mafia organization that protects its clients. However the government dispute resolution apparatus does not possess any special wisdom that the mafia dispute resolution apparatus lacks. By and large, mafias seem to be less evil than governments, and perform fewer violent, oppressive, and flagrantly unjust acts than governments, and are less prone to expensive and destructive wars. This probably reflects the fact that such actions by mafia chiefs are far more likely to get the mafia chief killed, than similar acts by governments are likely to get the ruler killed. One might perhaps argue that some notable mafias in the US are worse than the US government, though I have never heard of them asking for fifty percent of someone's income. However clearly no mafia in the US, or indeed anywhere, has ever been as bad as any of the more objectionable governments. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG FwiAHWNbE9PK8jomcmlEZQlBYbPYs5IhxFnAPjN2 4QU3gWdu2/5C3xghqUfLx5inM+SHUn29tmXbz/wWO ----------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/      James A. Donald