Yes - I realised pretty quickly that my "child in garage with matches" analogy might be taken this way. Perhaps my point might have been better made by asking, for example, wether you believe that a manager of a football team is needed in order for the success of the team ? Would you agree that a manager (a good manager that is) may be in a position (physically, intellectually, by virtue of experience etc) to direct the team in a way that the team might better achieve success - not least because the manager may have a vision that individual players in themselves may not have ?   Or do you think the individual players should be left to completely direct their own play/decisions and strategies ?

    Surely the important thing is that the manager be responsible,be capable, shows a duty of care, and is accountable for his actions (they are transparent) to the team he manages ? Of course, the manager can be none of these things if his interest lay elsewhere than in the betterment of the collective/team he has been granted responsibilty for managing - if, for example, he has his own interests at heart, or he is compromised by financial incentives from outside his club.

  I agree with a lot of what you say - but what I can't figure out about a lot of the anarchist/libertarian types on this forum (from the States ??) is how the private ownership of the natural wealth of a nation seems not to be seen as the overwhelmingly corrupt influence that it undoubtedly is on society - not least because that wealth distribution is so heavily skewed in favour of a very small minority.
 [it should not be forgot also that the US has the lowest rates of social mobility of any western advanced industrialised nation - meaning that if you were born without wealth, power and opportunity in the US you have less chance of seeing and/or achieving them on the basis of your own merit than anywhere else in the western world]

   I mean, if I were reading posts about employee managed businesses (such as this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Colliery) or land reform proposals (such as this http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/17/eigg-housing-crisis-britain-answer) then I might be a little more amenable to the general flow.

  Sadly, for some, BTC seems to be something tantamount to a potential smash and grab.



   Yes, that sounds great - but how does this cooperative-competitive relationship actually manifest itself in the real world ?

 I might be odd - and its certainly not the American way (which is fine because I am British) - but the competition in my life has always been with myself. That is, I've always struggled/challenged and competed with myself in order to achieve - in some things I have been sucessful, whilst in others I have failed - such is life.
  However, in my relations with others I have always tried to co-operate as I have found this to be the most mutually beneficial and productive way forward.

  Hey, I may well, in my life, have been able to make a larger stash of wealth for myself if I had been a little more competitive in my relations to my fellow human beings - but do you know what ? - I'm happy with who I am