Comments on: Pirates mean serious business

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:49:44 +0000

The pirate situation certainly fits the description of anarcho-tyranny.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:22:52 +0000

I can't believe these ship owners haven't put some machine guns or small cannon on their ships. Duh. One trained ex-military guy could bring a world of hurt to these clowns quickly before they get in AK range. Like the article says, an M2 can reach way out and turn their boats to Swiss cheese.

By: Ross

Ross — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:31:39 +0000

We might also take an economic approach, cloaked in militarism, rather than vice versa.

No, just kidding. Let’s kill ‘em all.

In the case of the eco-pirates dumping toxic waste washing up on beaches, destroying fishing, tourism and livelihoods, let’s definitely go for the .50 cal. Hoo-rah.

By: Jehu

Jehu — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:36:12 +0000

I favor a more privateer-like approach. Indeed, the governments of the world are the problem by putting obstacles in the way of a private solution while refusing to implement the historical military solution. But I bet that an approach like this could be brokered through a less suicidal and insane government that had no qualms about summarily executing pirates.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:15:38 +0000

"Just hand over your wallet" is excellent advice for the individual being robbed, but not so excellent for society at large. In the past, any sea captain would have executed any pirates he could get his hands on. Now, not so much.

By: Jehu

Jehu — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:07:47 +0000

Clearly this is a collective action problem. Getting rid of the problem could probably be done for less than 1 billion/year. For instance, if bounties of $100K were provided for the heads of Somali Pirates, that would pay for approximately 10k heads/year, which I’d wager would depress the problem down to insignificance. Clearly the market can figure out how to provide the heads of pirates for $100k each. In fact I bet the price of heads would in practice be far less and far less than 10k would be needed to stop the practice.