Government vs. Markets

[Russell Nelson]

   Date: Wed,  5 Oct 1994 21:22:32 -0400
   From: Amanda Walker <amanda at intercon.com>
   Cc: cypherpunks at toad.com
   Content-Disposition: Inline

   > In the main, corporations persuade and governments force. 

   I don't see so much of a difference.  There is very little
   difference in the nature and methods of governments
   vs. corporations.

Yes, RSA forces us to use their public key encryption or no other.
But who lets them do that?  The government.  Corporations always want
the government to give them a monopoly.  How much easier not to compete!

Most of the evil that corporations do is in collusion with governments.
Purportedly, AT&T had to be incentivized to make Clipper phones.

   A government can usefully be viewed as a
   corporation engaged in the business of public services.  It's
   simply a geographical monopoly, as are many public utilities.

A geographical monopoly with *guns*, and a mandate from the masses to
use them.  I can't say that I've ever seen a Niagara-Mohawk or NYNEX tank.

-- 
-russ <nelson at crynwr.com>    http://www.crynwr.com/crynwr/nelson.html
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