Political Theory

Re: Possibly polishing up the government-mafia connection

Wheylous — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:35:04 GMT

Buuuump!

Re: Possibly polishing up the government-mafia connection

Malachi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:39:23 GMT

Ok. Cause I think it would be pretty awesome if you showed that the mafia spends less money on violence, as a percentage. Which is probably both likely and impossible to demonstrate.

Re: Possibly polishing up the government-mafia connection

Wheylous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:32:30 GMT

I'm not planning to do a Mafia budget. I'm planning to say something like "suppose 43% of the money the Mafia steals from you goes to a cause you like. Would you support it? Well, that's the percent the federal government spends on things you like." Note: these are NOT the right numbers.

Re: Possibly polishing up the government-mafia connection

Malachi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:27:21 GMT

I want to know where you plan to get figures for the mafia budget

Possibly polishing up the government-mafia connection

Wheylous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:20:01 GMT

When confronted with the Mafia analogy to government, people usually respond either with 1) But we elected them or 2) But they do good things with the money!

The first objection is essentially destroyed by the amazing video in this thread: http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/28421.aspx

A solution to the second objection was suggested to me again by the video: let's analyze a federal government budget for one of the Bush years and see how many things a liberal would have been displeased with. Include war funding, subsidies, etc. Then compare it to a Mafia which provides a similar amount of good services.

I'm wondering what percent of federal spending would be considered bad, and whether it's enough to reinforce the analogy.

Any good sources for the breakdown of the budget of the Bush year with the highest spending in non-liberal areas like war?