Let me remind us of the original claim I was refuting: "If someone doesn't like the political system, then you're acting immorally and violently by forcing them

Let me remind us of the original claim I was refuting: "If someone doesn't like the political system, then you're acting immorally and violently by forcing them to abide by it." This is the claim we're discussing (to the extent we're not off topic). You've agreed several times in the post above that this claim is hogwash. You'd just prefer individuals to be setting rules about their property (e.g. roads) instead of the government setting similar rules. But at some point, any reasonable system allows someone to force someone else to do (or not do) something. >If you're curious, I can point you to some resources/books regarding anarcho-capitalism and related topics. There are some nice introductions out there; some of which detail all the possible combinations of problems you can think of. Maybe. Here's a problem I want the answer to. I believe it's inevitable that tons of power will become concentrated in a few hands. When this centralization of power happens, it's always abused and lots of people get screwed. It seems that democratically elected governments are easier to exert pressure on than privately held corporations. Therefore, I prefer for vital resources -- water, food and the energy/transportation networks necessary for providing them -- be owned or at least heavily regulated by a democratically elected government. I'm only willing to entertain something like anarcho-capitalism if it prevents centralization of power and/or considers itself subservient to democracy. I believe that the former case is impossible and that the latter case is incompatible because most people prefer significant government involvement for lots of reasons, mostly based on self interest (see status quo). If you have resources addressing this problema which are well-grounded in behavioral or social science research methodology, I'd be interested in reading them. (p.s. thanks for the civility)