http://blog.russnelson.com/dictator/index.rss Russ Nelson's personal blog en http://blog.russnelson.com/dictator/why-i-want-to-be-your-dictator.html <p>The most interesting parts of economics are the <a href="http://coordinationproblem.org/">coordination problems</a>. They come up whenever a problem can only be solved by coordinating with other people. To a very large extent, coordination problems can be solved by the combination of private property and price signals. Unfortunately, some problems don't get solved using only those two mechanisms.</p> <p>We need a dictator. A constitutional dictatorship. One in which the dictator is <em><b>strictly</b></em> limited in power. One whose power can be taken away by a vote of a super-majority of the people. While I don't actually want to be a dictator, I want to get the coordination problems solved. From serious problems like the over-extension of copyright law, to the War on Drugs, to defending our national borders, all the way down to why we don't have any standard sizes for Li-Ion batteries? There are AAA, AA, C, and D sized cells for carbon-manganese (remember them?), alkaline, Ni-Cad, Ni-MH, and Lithium. Why not Li-Ion or Li-FePo? It's a coordination problem; nobody wants to make their device dependent on somebody else's batteries.</p> <p>So, Vote Nelson for Dictator! I promise not to do anything for you that you can do for yourself!</p> <p>Further topics in this category will list the things that I promise, as your dictator, not to do.</p>