The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.
Milton Friedman
[Speaking of black markets…
Something to keep in mind is a tax greater than 15% on an item is the threshold at which a black market is created. Think of all the things that are taxed at rates greater than that. Then remember than in a black market you don’t have the court/justice system to enforce contracts. Which means contract disputes are settled privately–frequently with violence. One further point before I deliver the punch line, it is exceedlying rare that a criminal pays taxes on his income. Thus $100K/year in criminal income is more like $175K/year in legal income. Hence high taxes not only create crime in the form of a black market and their methods of dispute settlements but high taxes make criminal income more attractive than legal income. Big government doesn’t keep us safe from crime, it creates crime.–Joe]
Excellent analysis.
I have a bit of follow up at http://brillianter.com/node/325 – Black Markets
(I am not having much luck with your link/xhtml system.)
Yeah Joe, but when a criminal enterprise suddenly becomes extremely powerful because of black markets created by government, you can always blame it on the gun owners. (Bonus points if you pass a law to punish them after the original law that created the enormous black market is abolished — and keep that law on the books for the rest of the century.)