3 ms·

That is a bad idea. It leads to vigilantism, or even worse, local organized crime steps in with attendant protectionism racketeering. With the American System

That is a bad idea. It leads to vigilantism, or even worse, local organized crime steps in with attendant protectionism racketeering. With the American System each year failing a larger and larger percentage of the population, while the upper elites continue to hoard wealth and starve the government, then it makes more and more poor people turn to illegal means to make money. Much like drug gangs in the inner city. However this will also turn into the nasty spiral of gang-controlled neighborhoods chasing out legit economic activity and becoming even more poor. What we need is a decent civil society. But America is an oligarchy and they've figured out how to use social media to block any meaningful populist progressive reform by organizing a sufficient opposition with astroturfing and fake news.

floren 5y ago
Yep, but if the police aren't going to do anything I find it hard to blame the people in SF Chinatown who started doing their own patrols: https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Chinatown-patrols-met-with-hope-ambivalence-16061455.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Chinatown-patr...
dantheman 5y ago
Do you think the government is starved? At what level of spending would it not be starved?
jokethrowaway 5y ago
The government is incompetent at protecting people. Call the police and you'll see how it goes. And this is happening while the government is spending 13B per year. I wonder, where does the money go, if basic services are not provided? I'd rather spend my money on a network of competing private protection companies if I didn't have to pay taxes for the police. Once the system is in place you can create all sort of charity based options - or tax funded, if you like the idea of forcefully stealing money from citizens' profit - to grant protection to those who can't afford it.
- floren 5y ago
  > I'd rather spend my money on a network of competing private protection companies if I didn't have to pay taxes for the police. I'd prefer to fix the cops rather than sign up for a MetaCops subscription in my burbclave.
  - mjul 5y ago
    That looks like a Snow Crash reference (Neal Stephenson). Absolutely worth a re-read if you want to explore this scenario. Edit: spelling

floren 5y ago

Yep, but if the police aren't going to do anything I find it hard to blame the people in SF Chinatown who started doing their own patrols: https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Chinatown-patrols-met-with-hope-ambivalence-16061455.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-Chinatown-patr...

dantheman 5y ago

Do you think the government is starved? At what level of spending would it not be starved?

jokethrowaway 5y ago

The government is incompetent at protecting people. Call the police and you'll see how it goes. And this is happening while the government is spending 13B per year. I wonder, where does the money go, if basic services are not provided? I'd rather spend my money on a network of competing private protection companies if I didn't have to pay taxes for the police. Once the system is in place you can create all sort of charity based options - or tax funded, if you like the idea of forcefully stealing money from citizens' profit - to grant protection to those who can't afford it.

floren 5y ago
> I'd rather spend my money on a network of competing private protection companies if I didn't have to pay taxes for the police. I'd prefer to fix the cops rather than sign up for a MetaCops subscription in my burbclave.
- mjul 5y ago
  That looks like a Snow Crash reference (Neal Stephenson). Absolutely worth a re-read if you want to explore this scenario. Edit: spelling