Great slashdot comment by Dan “ssh ninja” Kaminsky, matching the decentralised theories of maverick economist David Friedman with the grim realities of how reputation management works. I really enjoy reading Friedman’s work, because he seems to be the only laissez-faire economist who truly believes what they all appear to be saying. Friedman genuinely does think the market is the best solution to anything – including legal systems, national defence, and the environment. I don’t agree with him, but I think his models give strong clues on how a completely decentralised, emergent infrastructure might work. He’s also much more readable than most economists (“The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.” is one of his). If you’ve read any Ken Macleod, the economy of The Stone Canal is based on Friedman’s Machinery of Freedom: the weird bit where you can kill someone legally if you get a witness is lifted from his analysis of the private law world of medieval Iceland.
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kaminsky on friedman