News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Portland Anarchist Road Care Fixes Potholes Anonymously (... by IAmEveryone on Thursday April 05, 2018 @08:40AM (#16764286)
Most people don't even shoulder their share of household chores, even though fair sharing is enforced by informal yet powerful social mechanisms. So I'm not optimistic regarding widespread peaceful anarchy for services.

Fixing potholes yourself also takes a (few million) step(s) backward in time: it's the bartering of public service, forgoing the awesome benefits of specialisation and cooperation.

But you know where this sort of anarchy basically works: taxes! Almost all people send in their tax returns without a fuzz. It's almost as if they agree that everyone should chip in for shared endeavours, and that money is an excellent medium for coordinating it all.

(yeah, I know there's the threat of criminal law lurking if you don't pay your taxes. But taxes are probably the world's most universal policy, and only a select few lunatics and presidents seem not to get the concept)

Re:Portland Anarchist Road Care Fixes Potholes Anonymously (... by patrickmay on Thursday April 05, 2018 @10:50AM (#16765392)
Taxes enforced by the state are the absolute antithesis of anarchy. The difference between coercion and voluntary organization is profound.
Re:Portland Anarchist Road Care Fixes Potholes Anonymously (... by reptantchaos92 on Thursday April 05, 2018 @01:18PM (#16766831)
While it can be argued that this takes us some steps backward in time, this is not barter, it's gift economy. Barter never existed outside some few events and capitalist ideologist imagination ;-).
[dead]
Re:Portland Anarchist Road Care Fixes Potholes Anonymously (... by viridian on Thursday April 05, 2018 @11:48AM (#16765970)
>I'm thinking of places like Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky - you know, those flyover states.

>These governments don't represent us.

These are why I -1'd you just now. Insulting the places themselves is rude, and pretending that these states would be blue were it not for gerrymandering, and thus rejecting that the majority of these state's voters vote R is ridiculous.

yes, Gerrymandering is garbage, but Kansas's population isn't 90% secret blue voters being suppressed by gerrymandering. You are by and large seeing the actual will of the people.