Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy

[Bill Frantz]

At 7:05 AM -0700 5/6/03, Kevin S. Van Horn wrote:
>Tyler Durden wrote:
>
>> Likewise with governments. I still need my trash taken out, and for
>> potholes to be fixed.
>
>
>What makes you think government is needed at all for these?  My trash is
>taken out by a private company, not by any government.  And privately
>built and maintained roads have existed for a very long time.

120-130 years ago, there was a privately owned toll road between Los Gatos
and Santa Cruz.  Now there is a publicly owned road, with no toll, and I
haven't heard much call to go back to the old days.  Why are the vast
majority of people happy with the current situation?  Some ideas:

* Paying for roads through gas taxes has much lower transaction costs (in
both time and money) than paying tolls.  The modern electronic toll systems
are a relatively new development, and while they compromise privacy, that
privacy will soon be lost to the cameras.

* People like the direct influence on road decisions that the political
process allows.  In the case of the Los Gatos -- Santa Cruz road, the
people in Santa Cruz county who don't want their county to be a bedroom
community for Silicon Valley have kept the road a twisty 4 lane freeway.

Any more ideas?

Cheers - Bill


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