On 18 Nov 2013, at 20:39, meekerdb wrote:
On 11/18/2013 9:44 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
You seem to be arguing against a straw man here. I explained why
the free market can't fix the tragedy of the commons. You haven't
answered my point.
And he's so concerned with anti-government straw men that he
hasn't noticed that a market requires government (including
coercion) to define ownership and punish fraud. Without
government you couldn't own any more stuff than you could carry
and defend by force of arms.
I agree with Brent. Government can be the best thing a democracy
can have, ... until bandits get power and perverts the elections
and the state power separations (and get important control on the
media, etc.).
But we should make clear that a government has nothing to say about
your food, medications, sports, religious or sexual practices, etc.
As long as there are no well-motivated complains, the state can't
intervene.
So you think it's a bad idea for the government to require testing
medications for safety.
Not at all. I appreciate that idea. A government can test for
medication, enforce the presence of warnings on secondary effects,
traceability of the components, etc. It can even enforce age limits
for some products.
What I meant is that it is not the role of the governments to say
*which* products among food and medication is allowed or not. Or which
products I can grow in my home or garden.
But it can enforce many modalities on their type of selling. Sorry for
being unclear.
You liked the old "patent medicine" system better? You don't like
the government requiring food labels with contents?
On the contrary. I am all for it.
How about airline safety requlations; why not just let the customers
decide based on reputation (that's what libertarians want)?
I am not libertarian. At least not in the sense of the word in the US.
I appreciate libertarians' opposition to big corporations, but that's
all.
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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