I decided to move some discussion from this post up to the top level here. Specifically, Watoosh wrote: "Well, if violence is defined as initiation of force (which, of course, presupposes certain property rights), then I think Rockwell is correct..." Well, if we define cats as elephants, then many people keep elephants in their house. More seriously, firstly, violence is not usually defined that way. It's defined as, you know, violence, so that, say, someone may respond violently or non-violently to someone who aggresses against them. Otherwise, it would make no sense to say, for instance, "He punched me, but I did not stoop to violence in response." And, secondly, the libertarian usage of "initiation of force" is very offbeat. If I wander onto someone's meadow, most people would not say I had "initiated force" -- I mean, sure, I used "force" against the earth to push off walking, but that's not force directed against...
"Software is eating the world"
ReplyDeleteI always asked:
And when it has eaten all what will be left?
I'm surprised you'd come down this way. My model of you predicts you'd have a lot of the usual reservations about:
ReplyDelete- reneging on the "property right" in a taxi medallion without compensation
- sending out underinsured drivers who probably don't understand the costs and risks they're taking on
- how Airbnb encourages circumvention of zoning laws and rental contracts ("no, you don't have the right to invite walmart to run out your basement, even if you 'own' the property")
- how they generally skirt the law in anticipation they'll be too popular to prosecute
Plus, Airbnb is low-capital?
Well, all of the things you note *might* be problems, but we can take two attitudes:
Delete1) There are these problems: let's speed through some legislation so we can get these great new services on the right side of the law; and
2) There are these problems: therefore let's crush these new services.