[lovich]

Or it just uses its power to influence government regulations and suppress or buy out competition.

Like what one of the current crop of mega corps has an internal market for how its capital is allocated. The closest example I could think of in history was IBM and its blue dollars.

[_0ffh]

Buying out maybe, but that only exacerbates the problem for the company in the long run. Regulatory capture is what actually works, but not within the libertarian framework, because regulation again is not a market mechanism, but government intervention into the market - exactly what libertarians say we should have less of in the first place.

Mind you, not different, or "better" intervention, but less, or even none at all. One could argue the point about libertarianism is that you can't trust the government to do a good job because it is based on force, and not voluntary market interactions, and hence lacks the proper incentives. It's just a bunch of guys on a spending spree with other peoples money, and their incentive is to make as much of it as humanly possible land in their own pockets.

[olelele]

To me the biggest problem w. libertarianism & game theory etcetera is that humans are not only motivated by greed/personal gain.

Pure anecdata; the libertarian/capitalist anarchists I've met have all been close to sociopathic in their disregard for others. I always figured that people who have an underdeveloped sense of empathy project this onto everyone else.

[_0ffh]

I prefer to judge such advice by the available facts, not by hearsay about the moral character of the advisor - especially not hearsay spread by his enemies. Your ad hominem has no bearing on the argument.

So, how is trusting politicians and bureaucrats to be selfless and focused on their duty to society working out for you?

[lovich]

Cool, how is letting companies go even more hog wild a solution when right now the problem is occurring from their semi hog wildness.

And it’s not an ad hominem on its own when the argument he is making is that the people espousing a certain world view are doing so because they believe everyone else has their same myopic view on reality and empathy.

[_0ffh]

What problem would that be that has not already been addressed further up the chain?

And it is an ad hominem - it's nothing more than an allegation impugning the character of libertarians in order to dismiss their arguments. The allegation alone does neither prove anything about the actual character of these people, nor what their view on reality and empathy actually is, nor if that view is actually wrong, nor who is doing the actual projecting here.

[olelele]

I come from Sweden and would say it worked great until '86 or so.