The Mob, no the Real Mob.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Organized crime varies wildly in America. There are and were plenty of criminals towards the more "honorable" end of the spectrum and plenty on the indiscriminate end.

[Brotep]

In places where governments dare not tread, organized crime is often responsible for services such as sanitation...

[Cain]

Usually any established organized crime group is going to be less violent than those seeking to displace it.  The Mafia displaced the Jewish and Irish street gangs by being vicious, cold-blooded killers and, once they reached the top, relaxed and started acting like philantrophists and "civic leaders" and the like.  And then the cycle repeated itself with the Russian-Chechen Mafias and Mexican/Columbian/Latin American drug cartels seeking to displace them.  That the Mafia in Italy and, to a certain extent, the USA, have returned to a more violent phase is because they are attempting to fight back and maintain control in a situation where their enemies can and frequently are more ruthless than they have been in the recent past.

Also, Anton, while that is entirely correct, it would be more accurate to say there is no sociological difference between government and an organized crime syndicate where the two are not competing for local loyalties.  Both provide a form of security, "justice", code of conduct, provide basic goods and services, intervene in the market etc

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

The Japanese Yakuza actually have business cards identifying themselves as Yokuza. Plus whenever theres  a national disaster theyre always the first on the scene(for photo-ops). And, when two rival factions of the Tokyo Yokuza broke out in war, they actually negotiated peace on national television.

[Cain]

That's more because the Yakuza own the Japanese Liberal Party (the one that has been in power roughly 99% of the time since the end of WWII) by the balls, know all its dirty little secrets and where the bodies are buried.  The JLP used the Yakuza to crack down on Communists and unionists in the 50s and 60s, and more recently they helped engineer the Japanese property bubble by threatening people so they would move homes, allowing investors to come up, do up the homes and sell them at a significant profit (especially since the investors were being backed by Yakuza money, and the Yakuza would force the homeowners to sell their house to them at a very low price).  Pretty much everyone in power is implicated in dealing with the Yakuza, whether they're bankers, politicians or CEOs, and so they can do pretty much damn well as they please.

The real irony though is that most Yakuza are far-right nationalists/Black Dragon Society enthusiasts and so despise the Liberal Party and it's pro-American, anti-militaristic stance.  If they ever wanted a more prominent role in the politics of the country, things would get mighty interesting, especially with China.

[eighteen buddha strike]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

[Placid Dingo]

The Japanese Yakuza actually have business cards identifying themselves as Yokuza. Plus whenever theres  a national disaster theyre always the first on the scene(for photo-ops). And, when two rival factions of the Tokyo Yokuza broke out in war, they actually negotiated peace on national television.

I was a very lucky Gaijin to get away with dancing amongst the Yakuza and their ladies in a parapara bar.

Only in retrospect did i discover there were fingers missing.

[Brotep]

Also, Anton, while that is entirely correct, it would be more accurate to say there is no sociological difference between government and an organized crime syndicate where the two are not competing for local loyalties.  Both provide a form of security, "justice", code of conduct, provide basic goods and services, intervene in the market etc

Yes.

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Yes, well, sometimes government is necessary.

[Cain]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Yeah on both counts.  The megaphones, along with large amounts of human feces and the occasional "lethal mugging" was the primary way they got people who were being obstinate to move houses, in the aforementioned property bubble scheme.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

I'm not lauding it, but I'm also not going to say everything is black and white.

[Doktor Howl]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Why not?

Though I have to say that the OP is looking through some very heavy filters.

[Adios]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Why not?

Though I have to say that the OP is looking through some very heavy filters.

I am. No question.

[eighteen buddha strike]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Why not?

Though I have to say that the OP is looking through some very heavy filters.

I guess I always imagined that organized crime would be brought up in the context of an example of free enterprise in an argument against libertarianism.

[Doktor Howl]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Why not?

Though I have to say that the OP is looking through some very heavy filters.

I guess I always imagined that organized crime would be brought up in the context of an example of free enterprise in an argument against libertarianism.

It's just business, the American Way™.  Which are the bigger gangsters?  Some collection of mooks in New York, or the Pentagon?

And, while I feel that Libertarians are silly, that doesn't mean that business doesn't work, in the sense that it feeds itself and grows (as opposed to "benefiting the public).

[Adios]

Lol@ yakuza megaphones.

... but seriously, I never thought I'd see this board laud organized crime.

Why not?

Though I have to say that the OP is looking through some very heavy filters.

I guess I always imagined that organized crime would be brought up in the context of an example of free enterprise in an argument against libertarianism.

It's just business, the American Way™.  Which are the bigger gangsters?  Some collection of mooks in New York, or the Pentagon?

And, while I feel that Libertarians are silly, that doesn't mean that business doesn't work, in the sense that it feeds itself and grows (as opposed to "benefiting the public).

This. And the fact that the mob was localized, you know, in their neighborhood and shit.