EDIT: From my friend Audie....
I used to work for an ATM Manufacturer. I hear lots of stories of how people try to break into them or into your accounts. One clever case was by a couple of guys from Southern CA. All they did was simply stuck a card skimmer right next to bank ATMs & then labeled it "Card Cleaner: Swipe to clean your dirty ATM cards." You couldn't imagine how many people actually used it. They made tons of $$$!
There is an alignment of interests between the population and the warlord that does not exist between the population and the bandits: it is in the interest of the warlord to restrain his takings and so ensure that his victims have a motive to be productive. The warlord also has a motive to clamp down on crime (other than his own), and to provide public goods that benefit those he taxes. Olson describes this as a "second invisible hand", by which autocrats are guided "to use their power, at least to some degree, in accord with the social interest." In a similar way, in a neighbourhood under the control of organized crime there will be no robberies, only a protection racket.
In many ways the Internet is, of course, [such] a place
...
Google is a warlord of the Internet, surrounded by bandits. It provides public goods because its revenue (advertisements) depends on a safe and yet wide-open Internet... let's not kid ourselves that Google is anything other than an organization with some interests that overlap ours.
Rather remarkable how a corporate entity can serve the people and itself at once in such a profound and industry-shaping manner.
Oh man, maybe they'll have 5 kids and then start their own allstar team.
Epic. *high five*
Hat tip Steph
