4 ms·

How do you simultaneously stop all taxation and prevent someone from breaking the flourist's kneecaps if she doesn't pay protection money?

zanny 10y ago
In the theoretical anarchist paradise, the person threatening the florist (I think is what you meant) breaks all the non-violence contracts with the rest of society by doing so, and if the florist (or witnesses) can prove the aggression in contract courts agreed upon in all participants contracts, then the aggressor is either fined to rejoin or outright removed from participating in the economy. Of course, its theoretical, and only works so long as the economy of good actors and voluntary participants is sufficiently larger than the economy of violent aggressors to prevent them from rising to power. If the violent aggressors can accumulate enough capital and power, they influence the rest of the economy and can rapidly usurp it because they aren't working by the same ethics as everyone else.
- krapp 10y ago
  Honestly, i've heard the anarchist argument plenty of times now, and the society being described never fails to seem like a state with the serial numbers filed off to me. It seems you've essentially described "laws" being interpreted by "courts" and enforced by "police." You're just calling the laws contracts, the courts contract courts and the police... hired mercenaries? Who is it forcing people to pay fines, or to exile themselves from society? At scale it seems as if a marketplace of violence and a monopoly on violence look like the same thing to most particpants.
  - zanny 10y ago
    Thats kind of the point, isn't it? All the pros of states without the cons. It should look familiar.
    - krapp 10y ago
      My point is that, to me, you would still wind up the cons, the only difference being they would be governed by different incentives. A man with a gun is still a man with a gun, and a jail is still a jail.
  - afarrell 10y ago
    Going further, this is what society currently looks like in the US. There are a variety of organizations offering security and they have all entered agreements to cooperate, effectively forming a monopoly. Occasionally a new one arises (Dead Rabbits, Cosa Nostra, Latin Kings, etc), but it can only operate on the fringes and is ultimately muscled-out by the Federal Conglomerate.
celticninja 10y ago
It was sarcasm,

zanny 10y ago

In the theoretical anarchist paradise, the person threatening the florist (I think is what you meant) breaks all the non-violence contracts with the rest of society by doing so, and if the florist (or witnesses) can prove the aggression in contract courts agreed upon in all participants contracts, then the aggressor is either fined to rejoin or outright removed from participating in the economy. Of course, its theoretical, and only works so long as the economy of good actors and voluntary participants is sufficiently larger than the economy of violent aggressors to prevent them from rising to power. If the violent aggressors can accumulate enough capital and power, they influence the rest of the economy and can rapidly usurp it because they aren't working by the same ethics as everyone else.

krapp 10y ago
Honestly, i've heard the anarchist argument plenty of times now, and the society being described never fails to seem like a state with the serial numbers filed off to me. It seems you've essentially described "laws" being interpreted by "courts" and enforced by "police." You're just calling the laws contracts, the courts contract courts and the police... hired mercenaries? Who is it forcing people to pay fines, or to exile themselves from society? At scale it seems as if a marketplace of violence and a monopoly on violence look like the same thing to most particpants.
- zanny 10y ago
  Thats kind of the point, isn't it? All the pros of states without the cons. It should look familiar.
  - krapp 10y ago
    My point is that, to me, you would still wind up the cons, the only difference being they would be governed by different incentives. A man with a gun is still a man with a gun, and a jail is still a jail.
- afarrell 10y ago
  Going further, this is what society currently looks like in the US. There are a variety of organizations offering security and they have all entered agreements to cooperate, effectively forming a monopoly. Occasionally a new one arises (Dead Rabbits, Cosa Nostra, Latin Kings, etc), but it can only operate on the fringes and is ultimately muscled-out by the Federal Conglomerate.

celticninja 10y ago

It was sarcasm,