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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory,net.legal
Subject: Re: Seatbelts for passengers (micromotives & macrobehavior)
Message-ID: <1726@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 03:29:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1726
Posted: Wed Aug 28 03:29:40 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 00:48:33 EDT
References: <535@brl-tgr.ARPA> <987@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <160@gargoyle.UUCP> <3426@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ.
Lines: 30
Xref: linus net.politics.theory:1021 net.legal:1832

> In article <160@gargoyle.UUCP> carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) writes:
> > ... A law
> >can help change a collective behavior pattern in which all the
> >individual agents act rationally, yet the total result is far from
> >optimal. ...  Such patterns are common in interactions among people (they are
> >often called Prisoner's Dilemma or Free Rider situations), and in
> >general, individual rationality does not lead to a collectively
> >optimal situation.  The free market is a special case: the market
> >"works" (in the sense it may be said to work) because each agent
> >enters the marketplace *voluntarily*.  But this is not the general
> >case with social interactions.
> >Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes
> 
> Richard is teetering dangerously close to a valuable insight.
> Namely, that there are some systems in which the rational behavior
> of all the participants "sums" to the good of all (as in the market)
> but that many systems work the opposite way.  In particular, political
> systems work the opposite way:  it is impossible for everybody to
> get rich by stealing from everybody else.
> 
> --JoSH

JoSH, what do you want to have in the absence of a political system?
When I deduced that a dictatorship, you were offended.  I am still
guessing.  My second guess: a theocracy, with the priests educated
in the Chicago shool of economy.

Perhaps I am offending you, but I want you to be more specific.

Piotr Berman