Thread: What is AC?
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Old 11-12-2006, 02:04 AM
Borodog Borodog is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
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Default Re: What is AC?

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That's because you're not very smart.

Luckily, the market selects against not very smart people like you.

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Duh. That's why we do this. And we don't really give a damn what the market selects because we are not a part of this society. It makes no difference to us what you believe in or find profitable. We just want it.
Now, to step out of character for a moment, are you saying that there is actually something in place to prevent such an occurrence? I don't buy it that it will just happen naturally. Explain.

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You are asking several questions at once, while making lots of assumptions as well.

Why did people like Al Capone dominate the alcohol market during Prohibition, but peaceful businessmen dominate it when it is legal? The answer is that violence is costly, and that high time preference individuals, like violent criminals, make poor decisions (by definition, since they are incapable of taking long-term costs and consequences into account). Low time preference individuals, like peaceful businessmen, engage in less costly, non-violent business practices and better decisions, because they are more capable of long term planning. In short, peaceful businessmen outcompete violent criminals.

This is all completely in addition to the fact that TIT FOR TAT shows clearly that cooperation is superior to cheating, the fact that the very existence of complex language shows that we are more prone to cooperation than conflict, and any number of other arguments.

Your other question is, what would be in place to prevent it? And the answer is, everything that is already in place now. It is not government that provides social order. You can see this by the fact that chaos and looting has not broken out the numerous times that, for example, entire police forces have gone on strike. Looting does break out, though, when property owners leave en mass, as was the case during Katrina (when the local police where still in New Orleans; they were in on the looting, in fact).

It is private citizens and the free market that deter crime and preserve social order. They buy guns, and dogs, and fences, and deadbolts, and security cameras, houses in gated communities, etc.

When actual criminals are asked what deters them from committing a crime, they answer unequivocally things like fear of guns, dogs, security systems, etc. Fear of being caught by the police are way down the list. Fear of being convicted is even lower. Fear of going to jail even lower.

Your last statement about such things "not occurring naturally" displays a clear lack of understanding of how the market works. How do you think pencils and steaks and coffee and ipods and tires get provided? They all get provided naturally, by the market, because people value them. People value security. The market produces it and people buy it. They buy it in proportion to the value of the property they have to protect and the threats they perceive to it.
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