Comment by wredcoll

21 days ago

I'm working on making it a thing, but my theory is that power can't be destroyed, merely transferred, and in most cases I'd rather have the power be vested in a democratic government.

Suppose an asteroid strikes the Earth and all human life becomes extinct. What power, specifically, has been transferred, and to where?

  • When an asteroid strikes Earth, its kinetic power is rapidly transferred primarily to the atmosphere, surface, and subsurface in the forms of thermal energy (heating and vaporization), mechanical energy (crater formation and ejecta), and seismic energy (earthquakes and waves).

The best option is it being decentralized and diffuse and operating through market mechanisms.

If that leads to bad outcomes, then government is a next best choice.

(Of course, all the special cases, natural monopoly, etc etc etc-- government has a role in addressing the bad outcomes associated with those).