What do the cops do without sufficient number of criminals to justify their existence? They create and invent them, of course.

This is what happens when your "job" is disconnected from the rational role of producing tradeable values that others voluntarily pay you for. Would any rational person not be willing to pay for some measure of security? Of course not. We all already buy locks for our homes,  cars, bikes, motorcycles, gym lockers, etc. We buy alarms, guns, ammunition. Some people hire companies to patrol their homes and offices regularly. Private security and surveillance is a growing industry, in part, because the cops are just so generally incompetent at it–and of course, that’s because we have to pay them whether they are effective in meeting our real security needs or not (and they almost never are; they show up to clean up the mess).

I have almost zero respect for cops, anymore. It’s been a long, long time since I could think of any value they provide me that I’d be willing to pay for, or, at least, that I wouldn’t be far happier and more satisfied purchasing from some private company that has to win and keep my business.

Wait…I take it back. Some San Jose policemen are out every weekend at a huge Flea Market around here. It’s so huge that it bottles up traffic for miles around, and intervention to direct traffic is a necessity. ‘Course, it’s not enough that the company who runs the market pays hundreds of thousands in property taxes for that enormous space and parking lots in this choice R/E area. They have to pay the cops separately, who are moonlighting. Get it? To get cops to deliver real values that are meaningful to everyday people, you gotta pay them extra. Not to mention the fact that you have to have "official" police officers direct traffic, but that’s a stupidity to reserve for another post sometime.