Diplomats for hire.

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

From the Associated Press:

Northern Cyprus, Western Sahara and Somaliland may not have much in common, but they share the same predicament: all are unrecognized states striving to capture international attention.

Enter Independent Diplomat — freelance diplomats who offer their assistance to such nations-in-waiting. They have scored a notable success helping Kosovo win independence from Serbia — but critics say they can only accomplish so much without involving governments and should not pretend to have more influence than they do.

The nonprofit group, comprised of former diplomats from a variety of nations, stands ready to help would-be governments navigate the complex system of national bureaucracies and international organizations designed to accommodate established nations.

There are numerous examples of their work mentioned in the article, such as helping Kosovo gain independence from Serbia and trying to get Somaliland internationally recognized. The only groups they will not help are groups involved in war or totalitarian regimes; a principle that sets them apart from the diplomats of many governments.

What do you think? Are they achieving positive results, or are they outsiders with little influence?

X-posted to libertarianism 

How much does government regulation cost?

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

This is hard to answer because there are not many fields where you have a free market alternative. In fact I know only one - wired telephony. You have regulated telcos providing landlines and there are free market companies providing phone services over internet connection.
Also even at this singular point the full comparison is hard because the government pays for a lot of stuff with tax payer's money but even comparing out of the pocket expenses should be an eye opener for every proponent of the government involvement (of course if your head is stuck up your rectum opening your eyes could be a bit of a pain).

So we have dozens of VoIP providers offering:
phone numbers at $1-5 per month (depending on plan)
in-bound calls for ~1c/min or $5-10$ per month
out-bound calls for ~1c/min in CONUS or $5-20 per month (providers on the upper end of the scale are ones who combine unlimited in-bound and out-bound plans)
international calls for cents/min depending on the destination
all the phone service features like voicemail, forwarding, screening, CID etc for free.

For example I have two local inbound phone numbers (one is free, another is $1/month-1c/minute), nation wide calling for $0.012/min (Canada for $0.005/min), international rate in the same range. With this I get: voicemail with e-mail and SMS notifications, CID, screening, call waiting, 3-way calling and dozens more features I never bothered to use for free. My total phone bill is around $5 with international calls.

On the other hand I have a land line from Verizon: for measly $40.50 per month I am getting one in-bound number, free inbound and local calling and long distance starting from $0.25/min, crazy international rates and call waiting. To add CID would be about $5/month, basic voicemail without notifications - even more and call screening if they are offering it at all would be in range of $10-20 (cannot get exact prices because Verizon's website is down again, as opposite to my VoIP providers). Just to take my number and name off the phone books to prevent telemarketer calling I have to pay $2/month! This is just what's on the bill without taking into account tens of billions Verizon alone is getting from government in form of tax breaks and subsidies. If I were to match the VoIP features Verizon can match I would have been looking at 100s dollars bill every month.

This shows that the government regulation does not just cost money - it costs an arm and a leg for inherently inferior goods.