Comments on: The only satisfactory response to anarcho-capitalists

By: slaniel

slaniel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:29:36 +0000

(where are all those minivans I used to see?)

Stephanie wanted to buy a car recently that was exactly like the one she was replacing -- namely a Mercury station wagon. Lots of room for groceries and kids, decent fuel economy, etc. She couldn't find one anywhere, and she was looking pretty hard. They just don't make minivans or station wagons anymore. She had to settle for a used Mercury station wagon.

By: chris r

chris r — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:35:59 +0000

I agree that “need” and “want” are slippery terms here in the U.S. and that most SUVs are unnecessary (where are all those minivans I used to see?). I just realized I was scowling at people I didn’t know waaaay too much when driving.

By: slaniel

slaniel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:24:58 +0000

As for the SUV thing: we should discuss more. I’d bet that the fraction of SUV drivers who need them is awfully small. I wonder whether the European cars that I saw while I was there — few and far between, and all of them tiny (à la the Smart ForTwo) — say as much as I think they do about what people “need.”

By: slaniel

slaniel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:23:19 +0000

I think it's partly an overgeneralization problem. You've got this mechanism that demonstrably leads to good things -- i.e., the market, with lots of dudes squaring off against one another. May the best one win. Everyone's trying to be a dick: I'm trying to charge you an exorbitant fee, and you're trying to get away with paying nothing. Neither of us can do it, because there are (by stipulation) lots of buyers and lots of sellers. So our private vices become public virtue.

But the setup to that conclusion required lots of things to be true. It required lots of buyers and sellers; in a market with few competitors, it's much less certain. It focused only on prices; if we're looking at something more complicated, like "consumer ignorance of nutrition facts," I submit that conclusions are much harder to come to.

By: chris r

chris r — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:45:37 +0000

I agree with much of what you say here, but the SUV disdain thing I’m not so in line with. I used to do it a lot. I still roll my eyes at Hummers. But it’s hard to say who ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ have an SUV at a glance.

I completely agree with you on being incredulous about the market as a force for… anything but maximizing profit. Amoral systems tend toward amoral ends. I don’t see why this is so unclear to so many people.