Black markets vs. cryptoanarchy

[Timothy C. May]

At 10:56 PM -0500 11/12/96, Jim Wise wrote:
>On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>> My piece was written as a rant about the dangers of the proposed talk of
>> "privatizing food distribution points," about how this would result in a
>> system where only the rich could get access to nutritional food, and how
>> the poor would be made to suffer. And how this "caloric anarchy" would
>> result in vicious monopolies, price wars, and deviation from Recommended
>> Governmental Caloric Intake Rules.
>
>Which it does...  FWIW, I tend to agree with your general point, but I
>moved from downtown Manhattan to Harlem recently, and was surprised to see
>how many foodstuffs cost _more_ up here, as well as the obvious fact that
>many are harder to get...  Junk food and cheap liquor are everywhere,
>though...

But you're conflating a separate issue: the cost of doing business in
high-crime ghettoes. Both rich and poor alike find prices high and
selection poor in high-crime ghettoes. Likewise, both rich and poor alike
find prices low and selection good in low-crime, suburban locales.


--Tim May

"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay at got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."