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How do you prevent state intervention in a free market? What prevents the capital-possessing incumbents in a market from saying, "We need a government and an ar
by geofft 7y ago
How do you prevent state intervention in a free market? What prevents the capital-possessing incumbents in a market from saying, "We need a government and an armed police force to enforce intellectual property laws"?
- mdpopescu 7y agoCompetition. You hire a different police force to protect your property. Of course, if one entity has a monopoly over the legitimate use of force in an area, you're in trouble.
- Nasrudith 7y agoThat sounds a lot like warring oligarchical or dictatorial nation states with extra steps in practice.
- mdpopescu 7y agoIf they manage to get monopolies over geographic areas then yes, you get exactly what we have today. However, for a couple of years after 1990 we actually had quite a lot of security companies that were competing peacefully in the same areas (Romanian police being absolutely irrelevant at a local level, with the reorganization of the state that was taking place). Of course, once the state got re-established "properly" that was quickly ended.