I cede to Blunts logic. IT seems I've been ignored. I think I address all of these issues.
But, for the sake of excruciating detail, I'll address one issue. The argument of Lawful Versus Unlawful.
I'll begin with law. On every base in the sector, I suspect there are laws, rules, and enforcers of such. I think a very, very common one, and perhaps the only universal one, is probably "You shall not punch holes in our station." That makes sense to anyone who wants to survive. Beyond that, if you want a decent marketplace, you need to enforce private property rights, so I'd suggest that every single base is a lawful entity, in that it has laws. Whether or not its laws fall in line with the laws of any other base, is up to the inhabitants. Now, in the discussion of nation states vs pirates, there's an inherent flaw in assuming that each pirate faction isn't a nation, albeit smaller than the great houses. They're nations at war, civilizations each struggling to impose their will on each other. The smaller ones are marginalized, either because they are fanatics or because of some other oddity of their character or history. They don't feel that what they're doing is wrong, for the most part, they each feel entirely justified in stealing or killing, because the lawful entities are doing something wrong. The liberty Rogues, for example, are mostly people incapable of finding jobs, or people who are addicted to cardamine. There is no way to dextox from a cardamine addiction, yet cardamine is illegal, and its addicts are prosecuted, so they leave, and join the nation of the Liberty Rogues, where they can live and prosper lawfully.
In one house's space, a revolutionary is seen as a terrorist by the ruling party. In another, they're generally helpful blokes (or women, in the case of the GC). In Alpha or Gamma, the Outcasts or Corsairs generally maintain rather standard order, while the BHG, whom are at least tolerated by the Houses, act like the worst criminals. Indeed, two houses are at war with one another, and consider each other in the wrong.
This isn't single people and petty crimes, this is nation states and politics.
