Yeah, in grad school one of my colleagues told me how a car was stolen from his father in Italy, and he (the father) went to the local mafia and arranged to hav

Yeah, in grad school one of my colleagues told me how a car was stolen from his father in Italy, and he (the father) went to the local mafia and arranged to have it returned. I did some digging into the history of the mafias in Italy and they really did originate in stepping in to do things like protecting private property when the government refused to do it. That eventually morphed into the "protection racket", but when the government creates a void, people step in to fill it. It's just absurd to think that any random person can steal up to $900 of your stuff whenever they want and that you should be OK with that or that you're not going to defend your property. Yes, maybe if you are a clerk for a big faceless corporation you do nothing and then let the HQ close the store, but if you are a small business owner or an individual, you are unlikely to just let yourself get robbed without fighting back. Society can't function if it doesn't protect private property.