The Underground
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:17 pm
Without moral socialism lots of people would go broke. The police and court systems the first among them. And without a police state people would be clamoring for one. Best give it to them before they ask.Underground activity comprises 20 to 40 percent of most urban economies, Venkatesh reports, but that doesn't mean it's identical from city to city. In Chicago, his previous stomping ground, illicit activity was based around tightly knit neighborhoods, but in New York it functions through networks that transcend geography and social barriers, with access controlled by cultural markers. Venkatesh suggests that this is a glimpse of the evolving future everywhere. "In the new world," he writes, "culture rules. How you act, how you dress and how you think are part of your tool kit for success."
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Black markets have always existed to provide goods and services that people want and that governments don't want them to have. Floating City is a fascinating glimpse at just how adaptable and real those markets are.
http://reason.com/archives/2013/11/27/s ... -sociology