[TriLUG] [offtopic] Considering a move to RDU area

[Tom Roche]

Paul McLanahan 4/30/2008 5:55 PM
 >> if a problem is really worth solving, free people will come
 >> together and solve it.

And then, all too often, free *riders* will come along and screw them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_rider_problem

If sufficiently motivated, free people then cooperate to coerce the
defectors, preferably democratically. Less sophisticated libertarians
tend to forget that

Chris Calloway Thu, 01 May 2008 11:46:04 -0400
 > free individuals coming together as groups to solve problem[s] is
 > exactly what our form of government is.

(more sophisticated libertarians try to obscure that :-) and also that
libertarians aren't *totally* against coercion--they're all for
coercion to, e.g., fund military and police forces to defend persons
and (more importantly?) property. That's not because they're against
coercion, it's because that's all they care enough about. (Opposing
*unnecessary* coercion doesn't make you a libertarian, it just makes
you not a sadist.) Unfortunately for libertarians, virtually everyone
finds there are other things (e.g. sustainability, justice, sexuality,
usually in addition to property) worth coercing other people about,
which is why there are no libertarian polities now, and won't be for
the forseeable future.

Fortunately we can all affirm the goodness of

* limiting the scope of coercion (e.g. IMHO regulation of
   non-reproductive sexuality is usually ridiculous)

* limiting the intensity of coercion (e.g. I oppose capital punishment,
   though I'd probably thrill to see W and crew hung @ the Hague)

* appropriately regulating the application of coercion (e.g. via fair
   trials)

then group-hug while singing "Kumbaya" :-)