Comments for Let A Thousand Nations Bloom http://athousandnations.com Towards a Cambrian Explosion in Government Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:48:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ Comment on Last Resort: New TV Drama About Bootstrapping Sovereignty by mp http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/10/last-resort-new-tv-drama-about-bootstrapping-sovereignty/#comment-14651 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:48:16 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3292#comment-14651 https://en.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Last_Resort_(2012_TV_series)

]]> Comment on The Vickies and Skill-biased Technological Change by tjic (@tjic) http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/05/the-vickies-and-skill-biased-technological-change/#comment-14649 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:02:17 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3286#comment-14649 > Morlocks, who have the energy and intelligence to comprehend details, go out and master complex subjects and produce

Hey there.

I’m a long time reader of the blog, and finally felt the need to comment.

…mostly because of the Morlock reference above!

I’m working on the revision of my first novel, which you might be interested in when it (eventually) comes out:

http://morlockpublishing.com/?page_id=5

The Powers of the Earth: a novel about anarchocapitalism, economics, corporate finance, antigravity, lunar colonization, genetically modified dogs and AI

“The Powers of the Earth” is a near-future science fiction novel in the style and spirit of Robert Heinlein’s classics, inspired both by the American Revolution and the Icelandic Settlement of the 9th and 10th centuries. It is well grounded in science, adding only the fantastic element of anti-gravity.

And, of course, the protaganist – a Maker at war with the Takers – names his firm “Morlock Engineering”. :-)

]]> Comment on Francis Fukuyama asks, What is Governance? by PP http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/01/francis-fukuyama-asks-what-is-governance/#comment-14648 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:08:57 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3267#comment-14648 You really should read his new book, merit based governance/administration, accountability of rulers and the rule of law were born in power struggle between local lords and state/king (as a “third party” court), and this creation is fragile as can be. “Property” is also only a power relation between different parties, there is no “property” an sich. United States started from ground zero and now they are just another corporate-fascist-oligarchy regime. There is no competitive market between state systems or laws, except in local scale in Somalia and favelas. Hayeks interpetation on birth of British common law was false, crown diminished the power of local tyrans because it acted fairly.

]]> Comment on Last Resort: New TV Drama About Bootstrapping Sovereignty by Nobilis Reed http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/10/last-resort-new-tv-drama-about-bootstrapping-sovereignty/#comment-14647 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:15:48 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3292#comment-14647 This actually seems like a likely scenario.

]]> Comment on The Weakness of Voice to Effect Political Change by Mac http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/09/the-weakness-of-voice-to-effect-political-change/#comment-14646 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:58:15 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3289#comment-14646 I’m not especially pissed about any of the things you’re ranting about, but it looks like Nobilis really nailed it.

]]> Comment on The Weakness of Voice to Effect Political Change by Mike Gibson http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/09/the-weakness-of-voice-to-effect-political-change/#comment-14643 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:01:00 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3289#comment-14643 I am anti-war and pro civil rights. It’s a sad fact of politics that I cannot promote those values by voting for candidates who profess the same. By highlighting this weakness of democracy, I hope to show you that we should be rational in our efforts to effect change. Clearly voting is not as effective as we thought. The alternative is competitive governance. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

]]> Comment on The Weakness of Voice to Effect Political Change by Nobilis Reed http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/09/the-weakness-of-voice-to-effect-political-change/#comment-14642 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:30:17 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3289#comment-14642 “Suckered into the voice gambit, the anti-war, pro civil rights movement is nothing more than the cat’s paw.”

Please allow me to get up on my hind legs and ask,

What does this have to do with competitive governance?

From http://athousandnations.com/about/

“Our aim is to find, analyze, and debate the innovations in governance today that may become the standards of tomorrow, especially those that utilize the best technology for social organization ever developed–the market. We are particularly interested in the meta-innovations that will alter incentives in the governing industry to improve the rate of innovation.”

I’m just as pissed about Guantanamo STILL being open, about NDAA and the so-called “Patriot Act,” and all the other overreaches our two-headed hydra of a government have perpetrated over the years as anyone else is.

That being said, how does this post advance our agenda?

Is it your aim to alienate people who believe in peace and civil rights, and believe that competitive governance might be a way to accomplish that?

Because from my point of view it looks that way.

]]> Comment on The Horrors of Getting Approval for an Ice Cream Parlour in San Francisco by Dois exemplos da fome doentia do nanny state « O Insurgente http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/05/the-horrors-of-getting-approval-for-an-ice-cream-parlour-in-san-francisco/#comment-14641 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:59:19 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3280#comment-14641 [...] primeiro é dado por Mike Gibson em: The Horrors of Getting Approval for an Ice Cream Parlour in San Francisco,. The tragedy of the anti-commons is a useful concept for understanding a prevalent type of [...]

]]> Comment on The Vickies and Skill-biased Technological Change by Mac http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/05/the-vickies-and-skill-biased-technological-change/#comment-14640 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:32:56 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3286#comment-14640 And by leaving out this sentence which follows the above quoted excerpt almost immediately, you intend to distort the message that Stephenson was building: “The situation I describe, here, could be bad, but doesn’t have to be bad and isn’t necessarily bad now:”

]]> Comment on The Horrors of Getting Approval for an Ice Cream Parlour in San Francisco by Mac http://athousandnations.com/2012/02/05/the-horrors-of-getting-approval-for-an-ice-cream-parlour-in-san-francisco/#comment-14639 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:10:45 +0000 http://athousandnations.com/?p=3280#comment-14639 “The article doesn’t investigate the origins and causes of this morass”

Of course not. That would require admitting that it results from SF’s anti-capitalist, left-leaning mindset. My business partner is good friends with his ex-wife who lives in Germany. This story exactly describes her trials trying to open a furniture store in Bonn.

Examples abound. One of my businesses involves exporting commercial trucks. Russia only allows trucks to be imported which are 36 months old or less. We were puzzled why our Russian customers weren’t interested in a set of very well-priced one-year-old trucks. The answer is taxes. They try to buy the oldest possible trucks — even though shipping delays create big risks — because the taxes skyrocket. In their government’s attempt to seize more money they have created a situation where they instead receive no money at all.

Some regulation is (probably) always necessary, but the left has turned government intervention and social manipulation through taxation into a fetish.

]]>