Utah Senator Mike Lee and Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett introduced legislation in December to make privateering great again with the Patriots of the Caribbean bill. (It's amusing to me that they both represent landlocked states.)
Here's maritime historian and privateer Sal Mercogliano's analysis of it:
5 comments:
My sense is that we should definitely authorize privateers; the whole thing works better when ordinary citizens are empowered and government bureaucracies are less central. Militias, privateers, volunteer fire departments, less centralization, more private choice to engage.
Give me a privateering air force, too.
Eric Hines
I think Sal makes a good point about profits, though. In the past, privateers paid for their ventures by capturing ships & cargo & auctioning it all off. How would they make a profit now? They can't sell the drugs they capture.
Instead of privateers, maybe naval & air militia would make more sense.
- Tom
Paging Porco Rosso (although technically he's an air bounty hunter going after air pirates).
- Tom
The government would have to offer bounties for the captured drugs that were slightly under market value for the drugs. Else you'll just be creating new drug cartels, most likely.
Post a Comment