A Bit of Fry and Laurie - Privatization of the Police Force

Here's a clip from the "A bit of Fry and Laurie" pilot episode; Privatization of the police force complete with critics discussing it afterwards. Enjoy!

• Category

  Comedy

[Terraxos]

Yeah, how dare a person feel 'entitled' to protection from crime! Who does he think he is? :/

And a country ruled by uncontrolled corporations is just as tyrannous as one ruled by an uncontrolled government.

[DonnZ0r]

This is exactly how hospitals work in US. "Oh your finger fell off, do you happen to have an account with us?"

[TheMacGregz]

Seeing as how corporations are a government construct by design, and most of these corporations are only around still because of legislation and regulations that allow a reduction of competition and barriers to entry... There's a reason it's call corporatism. I doubt you've ever heard anything of anarcho-capitalism, have you?

[Alex Roselle]

this clip is the only good part of Margaret Thatcher's legacy.

[scalls95]

3:33 "but for Heaven's sake, let's be condescending about this" LOL

[Kross2099]

A major problem with the idea of privatization of things like a police force is that it would be, at its core, a business. And businesses need to make money. The idea that I should need to pay money to an outside agency to be protected from crime and danger isn't one i'm comfortable with. It also brings makes the issue of law enforcement a more murky area. Who is to say if a privatized policeman is being too brutal and, more important, who is to stop him? Not the law, he's enforcing it.

[ThunderUpOKC89]

This is funny.. But I would suspect that the 'Nationalization of Healthcare' would be a lot less funny.. I guess we'll find out.

[Erel H L]

I used to find this funny, then I became a voluntarist hehe :P

[Erel H L]

sure it is. keep telling yourself that.

[Alan Cawthorne]

...surely the whole process of election etc is how the government is controlled?

[NlKo0Lais]

It isn't the protection from crime that Hugh Laurie feels entitled to  that i have a problem with. It's the fact that he wants the government to take care of everything like it's his mother. Some corporations may be tyrannous however there is a significant difference between that and the government, and that is that you can choose not to do business with it on the spot if it does something you don't like, with a government you have to wait 4 years and you only get one vote out of millions.

[flamingvipir]

Corporations are created and awarded power by the government. They are, though not one and the same, inseparable. That being said, in America, at least, the few roles of government on which generally everyone, even libertarians and pure free-market capitalists (excluding anarcho-capitalists, of course) agree include protecting people from unjust application of force (which, of course, often comes from the government itself).