The free market is the only real public good, since, as the sum total of voluntary interactions between people, it is the only good whose creation and perpetuation meets the criterion of strictly unanimous, and thus genuinely public acceptance.
Category: Substituting Liberty for Power
There Are No Such Things as Positive Rights
There are no such things as “positive rights”. Rights, by definition, are universal, meaning that everyone can exercise them, even simultaneously. But since exercising a “positive right” means coercing another to provide one with a specific good or service, everyone attempting to exercise a “positive right” simultaneously results in no one being able to exercise…
What Makes Anarchy Peaceful or Violent?
Imagine a world in which all members of the ruled class – that is, ordinary individuals who do not belong to the structures of power – suddenly disappear without a trace, the only people remaining being the members of the ruling class – politicians, bureaucrats, and their enforcers. Now, since in order to be a…
A Short Dialogue from a More Civilized World
A: You know, this whole system of “ordered anarchy” and “voluntary society” leaves much to be desired. We have homeless in the streets, some people have access to much better healthcare that others, charities can only do so much to help, there are occassional gang fights going on, etc. I was thinking that perhaps it…
10 Differences Between the State and the Mafia
1. The state is the largest apparatus of violence, aggression, and coercion within a given territory. The mafia is composed of all the smaller ones. 2. The state is the most well-organized apparatus of violence, aggression, and coercion within a given territory. The mafias’ inferior organization makes them less influential and their reach more restricted.…
Preference Change in Social Organization
Could the governments of the world reinstate slavery? Yes, they could. They possess sufficient coercive power at their disposal. But would they dare to do it? No, they would not. The prevalent social attitude toward slavery makes such an action uneconomic from the point of view of the calculus of power. Could warlords and mafias…
The Non-Problem of Rogue Defense Agencies
Even in today’s universally statized world, prudent individuals continue to patronize private protection agencies, hire bodyguards, and otherwise increase their personal security by the use of market means. The reason for them doing this is obvious – they know all too well that they cannot rely on the “protection services” provided by coercive governmental monopolies,…