Re: Private U.S. Guards Take Big Risks for Right Price
At 10:46 AM 4/2/04 -0500, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
The idea is, if transaction and price discovery costs fall enough, private force companies that auction their services in a free market become better than the "public" ones that rely on confiscated tax revenue.
Only if they offer comparable services. Which they won't be able to, see below.
I'd expect that sooner or later companies like Blackwater will start training recruits in competition with the armed forces instead of just hiring vets.
The govt has a monopoly on certain tools of the trade. Now while a private army (Wal-Marmy?) can get some of these toys on the black (free) market, they either can't get the best stuff, XOR the USG has a problem since that means anyone can get it. Everything from surveillance to weapons. And crypto-wise, reputation will clearly be important here. But yes, obviously, easy communication leads to more optimal markets, for both goods and services.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 8:59 AM -0800 4/2/04, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
The govt has a monopoly on certain tools of the trade.
Of course, that always hasn't worked right in other industries. The peculiar institution of geographic force monopoly will be an interesting test case. One could imagine how it would devolve, starting with licenses, like say, letters of marque... :-). Nozick argues force-monopoly naturally emerges from *any* force market, that, IIRC, associations will collude and eventually merge under peaceful circumstances, and, of course, if one fights the other, it takes the other's turf. Personally, I wonder if that's an artifact of human switched networks, though, but I'm supposed to say that. :-).
And crypto-wise, reputation will clearly be important here.
Ayup. See Pierpont Morgan, an old chestnut from my .sig file, below.
But yes, obviously, easy communication leads to more optimal markets, for both goods and services.
Indeed. Ronald Coase is your friend. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.3 iQA/AwUBQG3HA8PxH8jf3ohaEQKNIgCg6/Jy5pRSc2SM2+3qqffx4uEXTC8AnA2J WAEMhMrtgaTfvFjXr+eu2Ow9 =HZFq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "...Character. I wouldn't buy anything from a man with no character if he offered me all the bonds in Christendom." -J. Pierpont Morgan
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Major Variola (ret) -
R. A. Hettinga