CDR: Re: Guilding programmers.

[Tim May]

At 11:43 AM -0400 9/25/00, Trei, Peter wrote:
>Funny how threads mutate. Back when I started the
>topic, it was in a thread called "And you thought Nazi
>agitprop was controversial". It's now mutated to
>"<nettime> Re: Rebirth of Guilds" and is dicussing the
>freedom of lesbians to kiss in ballparks.
>
>Anyway, my main point (which was immediately lost
>in a discussion of certification programs for software
>engineers) was that whenever society permits some
>members of a profession to exclude other people from
>entering that profession, save in conformity to the prior
>members' "standards", you get high cost and/or low
>quality service. Lawyers and physicians do it through
>their professional organizations; and teachers through
>their closed shop union contracts. There are many other
>examples...

"Rent-seeking" is one good term for this overall behavior.

People, even animals, seek competitive advantage in various ways. One 
way is by limiting competition and collecting "rent." Travellers 
passing a particular point (tolls), organized criminals charging 
protection money (governments, mafias), guilds limiting entry 
(Blacksmith's Guild, American Medical Association, etc.), immigration 
quotas, etc.

Uusually a threat of violence is involved as an enforcement mechanism.

One of the aspects of crypto anarchy is that such threats of physical 
violence are less useful. And so rent-seeking is thwarted.

Gilding the lily...or the "Cypherpunks rose," appropriately.

--Tim May

-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.