orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (01/15/86)
I know this is net.politics.theory and so therefore
libertarians can have their field day divorced from
real life. However it seems to me that the history
of science shows that the best *theories* are those
which actually deal with empirical reality and facts.
I think it behooves one to look at a real life example
similar to the rent-a-cop case : namely private credit
bureaus.
These credit bureaus provide their credit checks for a fee.
In many cases they have undoubtedly done a reasonable job.
But in a dismaying number of cases they have ruined
people's credit ratings on the basis of gossip, hearsay,
or sheer ineptitude. Often the victims of this abuse
may not even know that they have been maligned. They
find it difficult to obtain access to their file and
even if they do they have an impossible time refuting
charges made by an unnamed source. In many cases the
mere fact that they have been taken to court by a landlord
for failing to pay the rent is enough to be blacklisted.
Even if they won the case and the court agreed that they
had every right to withhold rent payment until the toilet
was fixed, the water was running or whatever they are still
blacklisted. Any trouble for landlords is trouble,period.
This is the sort of "justice" truly obtained in real life
by such a system.
I cannot see justice in it.
But then who said libertarians were ever concerned with justice?
tim sevener whuxn!orb