Patents hurt us

[B]ecause of generalized and ever extended patenting, pharmaceutical companies have grown accustomed to operate like monopolies. Monopolies innovate as little as possible and only when forced to; in general they rather spend time seeking rents via political protection while trying to sell at a high price their old refurbished products to the powerless consumers, via massive doses of advertising.

...say Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine in their book, Against Intellectual Monopoly (chapter 9). Their case is compelling as far as I can see, and it is against patents (for their own book as well as for drugs and other "intellectual property").

I intend to read their book, and also the monograph Against Intellectual Property by the libertarian Stephen Kinsella. In my mind, there can be no justified reason to hold ideas sealed behind a veil of "property rights" that the State has imposed in order to protect big business. Now I need to get familiar with all the arguments. Wish me luck?

Why the State can get away with it

One of the crucial factors that permits governments to do the monstrous things they habitually do is the sense of legitimacy on the part of the stupefied public. The average citizen may not like — may even strongly object to — the policies and exactions of his government. But he has been imbued with the idea — carefully indoctrinated by centuries of governmental propaganda — that the government is his legitimate sovereign, and that it would be wicked or mad to refuse to obey its dictates. It is this sense of legitimacy that the State's intellectuals have fostered over the ages, aided and abetted by all the trappings of legitimacy: flags, rituals, ceremonies, awards, constitutions, etc.

...says Murray N. Rothbard in his For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (chapter 12). And how true! The reason the State can do what it does, mostly without resistance no matter what, is because most of us consider the State to be a legitimate entity. A member of the mafia, extracting "protection fees" and "contributions" from the local shop keepers, is always frowned upon. The tax collector is not. The tax collector is a man with a "normal job" and someone working for "the society". But really he isn't. He is a member of the biggest mafia, and a mafia that can operate mostly without resistance. And this is our fault.