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Just in case someone wants to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism Anarcho-capitalism is a

Just in case someone wants to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism Anarcho-capitalism is a political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state in favor of individual sovereignty, private property, and free markets. Anarcho-capitalists believe that, in the absence of statute (law by decree or legislation), society would improve itself through the discipline of the free market (or what its proponents describe as a "voluntary society").[2][3] One aspect that concerned me: In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services would be operated by privately funded competitors rather than centrally through compulsory taxation. Money, along with all other goods and services, would be privately and competitively provided in an open market. Sooooooooo private security firms for law enforcement? Pretty sure we saw how that worked out in Iraq with Blackwater. No thank you. There's a ton of flaws with this philosophy once you start thinking about it and following certain aspects to their logical conclusion. Such as: >>> I'm an anarchocapitalist and would love to see all of these costs unbundled, so that we each pay only for what we use. So you only use 2.5 miles of a highway to get to and back from work - right? Should you pay for the entire highway or just the parts you use? So what if other people only use "parts" of that same highway? Does that mean we suddenly have huge gaps in our highways since people are only paying for the parts they use?

hellcow 10y ago
You're describing toll roads, which of course work fine.
naasking 10y ago
> Pretty sure we saw how that worked out in Iraq with Blackwater. No thank you. There's a ton of flaws with this philosophy once you start thinking about it and following certain aspects to their logical conclusion. Blackwater contractors don't actually have to live in these places, they're just there for a short time to get paid, and then they get out. Arguably the incentives are different if you're an actual member of this society. I recommend Friedman's book if you want a proper introduction to anarcho-capitalism, instead of forming an overly simplistic view based on Wikipedia's introduction. His book addresses many of the naive counterarguments most people consider to be 'devastating' to anarcho-capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom
snrplfth 10y ago
>Sooooooooo private security firms for law enforcement? Pretty sure we saw how that worked out in Iraq with Blackwater. No thank you. A firm hired by the government, using taxpayer dollars, to carry out government orders, is not a good example of anything an anarchocapitalist is proposing. > So you only use 2.5 miles of a highway to get to and back from work - right? Should you pay for the entire highway or just the parts you use? It would be bundled together the same way other goods are, determined by the balance between ease of charging and the scale of the good. Maybe a road company would charge a flat fee, or maybe a per-mile fee, or maybe a fee varying by congestion. All these things can be and are done now with toll roads. Road companies would have to determine the optimal scale, just like any other company.
knz 10y ago
> So you only use 2.5 miles of a highway to get to and back from work - right? Should you pay for the entire highway or just the parts you use? So what if other people only use "parts" of that same highway? Does that mean we suddenly have huge gaps in our highways since people are only paying for the parts they use? The irony is that society would probably quickly realize that it's a lot more efficient to just build a road than pay for the overhead of managing so many small individual segments. To be fair, I assume the OP's point was that they would rather see a tax based upon their actual distance driven.

hellcow 10y ago

You're describing toll roads, which of course work fine.

naasking 10y ago

> Pretty sure we saw how that worked out in Iraq with Blackwater. No thank you. There's a ton of flaws with this philosophy once you start thinking about it and following certain aspects to their logical conclusion. Blackwater contractors don't actually have to live in these places, they're just there for a short time to get paid, and then they get out. Arguably the incentives are different if you're an actual member of this society. I recommend Friedman's book if you want a proper introduction to anarcho-capitalism, instead of forming an overly simplistic view based on Wikipedia's introduction. His book addresses many of the naive counterarguments most people consider to be 'devastating' to anarcho-capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom

snrplfth 10y ago

>Sooooooooo private security firms for law enforcement? Pretty sure we saw how that worked out in Iraq with Blackwater. No thank you. A firm hired by the government, using taxpayer dollars, to carry out government orders, is not a good example of anything an anarchocapitalist is proposing. > So you only use 2.5 miles of a highway to get to and back from work - right? Should you pay for the entire highway or just the parts you use? It would be bundled together the same way other goods are, determined by the balance between ease of charging and the scale of the good. Maybe a road company would charge a flat fee, or maybe a per-mile fee, or maybe a fee varying by congestion. All these things can be and are done now with toll roads. Road companies would have to determine the optimal scale, just like any other company.

knz 10y ago

> So you only use 2.5 miles of a highway to get to and back from work - right? Should you pay for the entire highway or just the parts you use? So what if other people only use "parts" of that same highway? Does that mean we suddenly have huge gaps in our highways since people are only paying for the parts they use? The irony is that society would probably quickly realize that it's a lot more efficient to just build a road than pay for the overhead of managing so many small individual segments. To be fair, I assume the OP's point was that they would rather see a tax based upon their actual distance driven.