One would have to track the reputation of thousands, if not millions of businesses. For that matter, if you include sole proprietors, one would need to track six billion+ people.
Tabulating data on billions of people is a job for many thousands of people. Can you possibly know all those people personally, any more than you can know the billions you started with? How can you verify that the information you receive is true? You would need multiple layers of raters, raters of the raters, etc. to have any substantial trust. Where would you even start? Would you trust the "rating agency rating agency" your friend or neighbor recommended? What if he or she is misled? It sounds like for most people this will be a giant guessing game. Would free people even submit to having such detailed data compiled on all of their activities, in the first place? Can we trust anyone with all that information? I'm not sure I'd want to go down that road. Reputation-based commerce doesn't work on large scales because of these problems. That is why Law is required, and someone to enforce it. Chris > Business survives on reputation. One business would not be able > to napalm another without getting publicized. The unprofessional > (understated) behavior would be bad for business. Would YOU > continue to do business with an entity that displayed such > aggression? I doubt it. > > There is no better check or balance, or self-policing mechanism, > than concern about pleasing the customer. BTW, lawsuits would not > disappear with government. > > -------------------------- > > > If there are two businesses making a product, and one destroys > the > other's offices with napalm, they control the market. How will > "Tradition and market forces" counter this threat? > > Chris > > > > ------------------------------------ > > ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > >
