This kind of cuts to my biggest problem with objectivists and anarchist-capitalists, no sense of time context or history.
"Let's abolish the government and all that stuff, it is bad and not natural", ignoring the fact that without the sort of government-structured society we've already made, they'd be in no position to have the wealth they are so afraid that taxes are going to "steal" and it works forward too in the sense that without the protections we take for granted from tax-sponsored government, they'd be robbed blind very quickly by those with the means and will to do it.
I enjoyed David Friedman's discussions of the incentives present under market anarchy in "The Machinery of Freedom", now available in its entirety online[1]. Your objections are not new and have been discussed at length by market anarchists. Whether or not you find the responses satisfactory is up to you.
David writes for a mainstream audience which is assumed to have some familiarity with concepts of economics and property, but does not need to already be a libertarian. I feel he is the best representative of market anarchist thought.
One thing I don't get with libertarianism is why this, second paragraph of the book, doesn't apply both ways:
"People who wish to live in a 'virtuous' society, surrounded by others who share their ideas of virtue, would be free to set up their own communities and to contract with each other so as to prevent the 'sinful' from buying or renting within them. Those who wished to live communally could set up their own communes. But nobody would have a right to force his way of life upon his neighbor."
I guess the police force would be worried about having a negative reputation, so robbing a small time person might not be worth the risk if it meant you wouldn't get the contract for the bigger fish. But at some point you could always just cash out by robbing your client.
I would also guess that the people you hire to protect your stuff would probably also accept payment to take other people's stuff so you would have a similar set of problems to medieval kings and their armies.
> This kind of cuts to my biggest problem with objectivists and anarchist-capitalists, no sense of time context or history.
No one attacked your person so I don't really understand why you get personal here. As it's my policy to avoid such poisoned discussions I'm going to leave this sub thread.
This kind of cuts to my biggest problem with objectivists and anarchist-capitalists, no sense of time context or history.
"Let's abolish the government and all that stuff, it is bad and not natural", ignoring the fact that without the sort of government-structured society we've already made, they'd be in no position to have the wealth they are so afraid that taxes are going to "steal" and it works forward too in the sense that without the protections we take for granted from tax-sponsored government, they'd be robbed blind very quickly by those with the means and will to do it.