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The difference between a private company and the government is that the government has a monopoly on the use of force. A government can imprison you for life. A

The difference between a private company and the government is that the government has a monopoly on the use of force. A government can imprison you for life. A company can't.

skissane 5y ago
Suppose the anarcho-capitalists somehow gain political power, and get to actually implement their ideas. They privatise the police, the prisons, and the court system, setting up a free market of competing privately-owned police corporations, prison corporations, and court corporations. They also re-legalise imprisonment for debt, because freedom of contract is a holy and sacred thing ("you aren't really free if you aren't free to contract away your freedom"). Finding yourself on hard times in the new order, your borrow some money from a privately-owned bank; the bank has put an imprisonment-for-debt clause in its loan contract, which you don't like, but you can't find any other lender willing to lend to you without one, and you really need the money. Unsurprisingly, you soon find yourself unable to make the repayments. The privately-owned bank goes to a privately-owned court, and successfully applies for an order for your imprisonment; the bank sends the court order to a privately-owned police force, who arrest you and take you to a privately-owned prison. The court costs, police costs, and imprisonment costs have all been added to your debt. The privately-owned prison sends you to work in a privately-owned slave labour factory. In theory, you can get out at any time if you just repay your ever-growing debt; in practice, you know you'll never be able to repay it, so you'll be here for the rest of your life. But, it ain't too bad – no government did this to you, no monopoly of force was used against you. There are other court companies and police companies, and if only you could have afforded their services, they would have defended you against all this. That all makes it okay, doesn't it now?
- shaky-carrousel 5y ago
  This may sound weird, but the world you described sounds awful yet interesting.

The difference between a private company and the government is that the government has a monopoly on the use of force. A government can imprison you for life. A company can't.

skissane 5y ago

Suppose the anarcho-capitalists somehow gain political power, and get to actually implement their ideas. They privatise the police, the prisons, and the court system, setting up a free market of competing privately-owned police corporations, prison corporations, and court corporations. They also re-legalise imprisonment for debt, because freedom of contract is a holy and sacred thing ("you aren't really free if you aren't free to contract away your freedom"). Finding yourself on hard times in the new order, your borrow some money from a privately-owned bank; the bank has put an imprisonment-for-debt clause in its loan contract, which you don't like, but you can't find any other lender willing to lend to you without one, and you really need the money. Unsurprisingly, you soon find yourself unable to make the repayments. The privately-owned bank goes to a privately-owned court, and successfully applies for an order for your imprisonment; the bank sends the court order to a privately-owned police force, who arrest you and take you to a privately-owned prison. The court costs, police costs, and imprisonment costs have all been added to your debt. The privately-owned prison sends you to work in a privately-owned slave labour factory. In theory, you can get out at any time if you just repay your ever-growing debt; in practice, you know you'll never be able to repay it, so you'll be here for the rest of your life. But, it ain't too bad – no government did this to you, no monopoly of force was used against you. There are other court companies and police companies, and if only you could have afforded their services, they would have defended you against all this. That all makes it okay, doesn't it now?

shaky-carrousel 5y ago
This may sound weird, but the world you described sounds awful yet interesting.