Buried deep in this article is Nicholas D. Kristof implicit theory on how the state came into being. According to Kristof, “Until the mid-19th century, firefighting was left mostly to a mishmash of volunteer crews and private fire insurance companies. In New York City, according to accounts in The New York Times in the 1850s and 1860s, firefighting often descended into chaos, with drunkenness and looting.”
So we replaced firefighters who loot at the scene with those who loot at the ballot box. And this is an improvement? Hmmm.
Note: I do not challenge the theory that the state came into being when the various looting mobs (or the other forms of muscle) morphed into a looting bureacracy.
