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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Rent-a-Cop
Message-ID: <904@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 09:46:13 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.904
Posted: Tue Dec 17 09:46:13 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 21:52:43 EST
References: <883@mmintl.UUCP> <4340020@csd2.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 31

In article <4340020@csd2.UUCP> sykora@csd2.UUCP (Michael Sykora) writes:
>>I am quite sure that organized crime would take over the private police
>>business in many areas.  I suspect it would come to dominate it overall,
>>although some areas might manage to remain free of it.
>
>It is important to note that in a libertarian society, much of the activity
>that organized crime is involved in would not be crime, and, therefore would
>not be as profitable.

Which forces it to concentrate on other areas, which still would be illegal.
The most relevant one here is extortion.

>>It is not out of the question that the final result of such an experiment
>>would be the takeover of government by organized crime.
>
>As far as I can tell there is not that much difference between the government
>of NYC and organized crime.  Organized crime is more violent some of the time,
>but the NYC government extorts more money from the public.

Do you really mean this?  A much larger portion of the money collected by
the NYC government benefits the ordinary residents of the city.  It is
much more responsive to the wishes of the residents.  (Don't compare it
to your ideal of what a government should be like in those respects, but
to organized crime.)  As for the amount of money taken, that is only a
matter of opportunity.  Given the opportunity, organized crime would take
much more.  Organized crime is a feudal power structure.  The formula for
computing taxes in a feudal government is (your tax) = (your wealth) minus
(the minimum you need to live on).

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108