Saturday, April 09, 2005
Private Enterprise: To achieve power and wealth, and to simply "do what it does,” business must provide goods or services to customers willing to purchase such products or services (yes, it is that simple).
Organized Crime: To achieve power and wealth, organized crime must also provide goods or services to customers willing to purchase such products or services; however, the cost will be considerably higher than that of "legal" market activity as a result of the government’s declaration of illegality. Because illegality disrupts normal channels of competition and creates unnatural scarcity, prices are driven up considerably. Because of this, organized crime often uses the methods of government to achieve some of its wealth and power – force and violence.
Government: Government achieves power, wealth, and its ends by forcing the "customer" (everyone under its control) to purchase particular goods and services, and pay the costs that it determines is proper, for products that the customer may not want, at an inferior level of quality and efficiency. It then uses extorted funds to distribute other products and services to given factions that it chooses, whether they want them or not (yes, it's that complicated… and ridiculous).
