{"id":10957,"date":"2010-06-15T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oooorgle.com\/wordpress\/?p=10957"},"modified":"2015-06-14T19:15:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T02:15:11","slug":"government-services-where-the-customer-is-always-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/government-services-where-the-customer-is-always-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Services: Where the Customer is Always Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"C4SS.org<\/a> | In the normal course of affairs, when we consume services offered on the market, we expect only to get the services we ask for, and to pay for just what we get. If we don\u2019t want the service a business is providing, we don\u2019t have to consume it or pay for it. And if someone else offers a superior version of the service on terms that we prefer, we can take our business elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Reader reactions to the Red & Black Cafe story, where the manager of an anarchist coffee house in Portland evicted a cop, are especially interesting against this background. One particular refrain can be summarized as \u201cJust wait\u2019ll you need a cop!\u201d For example, Big Mack asks: \u201cI wonder if they would be willing to tear their phones off their walls so that in case of a fire or a robbery, they won\u2019t have to \u2018bother\u2019 the 911 operators by asking for a responder to come over to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do a little thought experiment: Imagine a bakery that, instead of selling you what you ask for when you go inside, enrolls you on their customer list against your will, charges your account for whatever package of goods they think you should buy, and sends someone to collect the bill at gunpoint. If you want any of the pastries or loaves they have on display, you\u2019re expected to take them along with the bakery\u2019s choice of other offerings whether you want them or not.<\/p>\n

And if you walk in to pick up a loaf of fresh-baked bread, and the baker beats you senseless or tasers you, you\u2019d better not complain if you don\u2019t want to be called a hypocrite. After all, you badmouth the baker, you dirty stinking hippie, but you sure don\u2019t mind coming to him when you want bread! Anyway, you little ingrate punk, I\u2019ve seen what it\u2019s like when people don\u2019t have bread, and believe you me the bakers are the only thing standing between you and hunger!<\/p>\n

Think about it. Do you think bread is something we wouldn\u2019t have if there weren\u2019t a special class of bakers who forced us to consume it on their terms, and collected payment from us by force? Do you think our need for bread obligates us to obey the orders of bakers without question, or let them beat us up when they\u2019re having a bad day?<\/p>\n

Obviously not. Because bread is something that people can provide for themselves with a household oven, or organize with their neighbors to produce through neighborhood bakery exchanges, or purchase from any number of competing bakers who have to offer an appealing product to willing buyers. There\u2019s no technical reason the supply of bread can\u2019t be organized in any way the people who consume it prefer.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be great if everything was like bread?<\/p>\n

By Kevin Carson<\/p>\n

Also See:<\/p>\n