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A comment on Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons. Parent comment

Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by arethuza on Monday January 15, 2018 @11:27AM (#16151440)
Well, I guess that if you don't pay up to the mafia then Bad Things(TM) happen and if you don't pay your taxes then Bad Things(TM) happen - except that by definition the latter are "legal".

Note that I don't believe this myself - I'm on the "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization" side of the argument but I can see that those on the other side have a stateable case. My main objection is that I've never seen any plausible description of an advanced civil society that doesn't rely on compulsion to pay for things.

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Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by HarryHirsch on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:30PM (#16151920)
An anarcho-capitalist would probably say that one could pay a competing crew or start one oneself, as the landowners in this article did. At any rate, access to power is limited and requires deep pockets or reckless disregard for life. Not a society I'd like to live in.

Eric Hobsbawm wrote Bandits, a nice little volume on organized crime. It's written from a different political angle.

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