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Ah, yes, teaching coding without a licence can lead to some unprecedented consequences. Like what if some crypto-anarchist after learning how to code invents a
by snitko 13y ago
Ah, yes, teaching coding without a licence can lead to some unprecedented consequences. Like what if some crypto-anarchist after learning how to code invents a decentralized currency and undermines the banking system. This shall not happen, we must regulate things, or innocent people will get hurt.
Speaking seriously, here's how regulation works in a nutshell. A company that wants to prevent/eliminate competition approaches a legislator (through lobbyist, of course) and offers a bribe, say $100k. That legislator then passes a regulatory law that requires around $1m of taxpayers money to be spent on regulation. The company then makes $10m thanks to that new law. The legislator made money, the company made money, the public thinks it is protected. A perfect crime.
- _delirium 13y agoI don't think the actual anarchists, crypto- or otherwise, have been hassled (at least, not for this reason). There are free coding clinics at a number of anarchist infoshops and anarchist-inflected hackerspaces, and afaik none has received a complaint.
- snitko 13y agoI wasn't being completely serious, but whenever I hear government trying to get its dirty hands to something not yet regulated, it disgusts me. Regulation robs consumers and prevents innovation and competition, while making politicians rich. That's all there is to it. The side-effect of protecting consumers is unreliable and questionable in 99% of cases.
- _delirium 13y agoI guess I have a more in-between view, in that I'm sympathetic to the anarchists (with reservations), but less sympathetic to the profiteers, many of whom are simply hucksters. I think the trick with government is directing more of its energies against the hucksters than the good guys. Tricky to do, but then also tricky to the do with market forces, which often reward fraud and parasitism. Not always, of course! But I also can't really buy into "government is always oppressing the innovators", since the innovators are often innovating more in the realm of how to separate people from their money...