My Case for Anarchy

I received this e-mail from TJ:
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TJ Madison to me show details 7:09 AM (15 hours ago) Reply

I had an idea for you to include in your next article.

I thought you could expand on your anarchism. I believe most people have an ignorant idea of anarchy, and maybe you can explain that it's more than just lawless teenagers with bones in their nose and purple Mohawks.

Just throwing it out there.

--
tj2
Stop Creeping Socialism
http://agentsofliberty.com/

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I am against the idea of purple Mohawks (on a purely aesthetic basis) so I thought I’d take an extra day, make this an extra-long article, and show why I believe in anarcho-capitalism. I like to separate this into two areas in my head, which I’ll call economical and moral in this article.

My Economic Reasoning

Before I begin I’d like to point out that I’m not near intelligent enough to come up with this stuff on my own, even though it may seem that way with my potentially poor explanation, and I will give some further reading at the end of this section or those who wish to see my sources and explore these theories deeper.

To start I need to explain the profit/loss measuring stick used by entrepreneurs. In a free market prices are used to dictate where scarce resources (any resource that is) are allocated, this happens when people who demand the resource more pay more for it (the resource is then allocated to those people). Through the chaos of a free-market and millions of transactions prices do a magnificent job of allocating resources to their best use, somehow in the end there is order and there are an extremely small amount of shortages, because when the demand for a certain good goes up, the price follows and as entrepreneurs are encouraged to find better ways to find the materials, or even enter the business, the higher price allows the producer to pay more for his necessary materials which allocates them away from other areas. This happens every second of the day as the market adjusts.

Because prices dictate where scarce resources need to be allocated entrepreneurs have a very easy measuring stick as to whether the market thinks the resources should be allocated in the ways they are using, this is profit and loss. If an entrepreneur is operating with a profit it means the market wants the resources to be allocated to that use, if not the then the market thinks there is a better use, and without any government intervention it just about always eventually diverts to that use (because the entrepreneur is losing money).

Before I go on here's a summary of the above: Because resources are scarce those who demand them the most pay higher prices, those higher price allows the market to allocate the resources in the best way, following this entrepreneurs will know how the resources should be allocated by their profit or loss.

The great economist Ludwig von Mises came up with the Calculation Problem Argument that said, basically, without this profit or loss measuring stick anything operating without the use of prices has no way of knowing if what they are doing is actually working.

Before going further it is necessary that the readers acknowledge that government does not operate on a profit/loss system if some area of government needs more money they give it more money through inflation of taxation, other than these two sins government has no way of getting money.

As a result of the two things in the preceding paragraphs government logically does not and literally cannot work in any way.

This does not mean there should only be government roads or defense or courts, it means that government cannot work in any way.

Moral Reasoning

Libertarianism is essentially a connecting of two things: a non-aggression axiom and property rights.

The non-aggression axiom says it is fundamentally wrong for anyone to initiate force; it is basically the Golden Rule and is a must in basically any religion.



Property rights say that every man has a right to his property, property being something with which one has mixed his labor or for which he has traded. “Thou shalt not steal,” covers this in my book.

As with the economic reasoning this logically must be taken as an absolute (for the Jews or Christians there is not a footnote after the ten commandments, explaining when to use them, they are to be used at all times).

Now, remember the two ways government can sustain itself: inflation and taxation, let’s explore these two.

First, inflation, inflation is the increasing of the money supply (many people think inflation is rising prices, this is the result of inflation, not the definition). The increasing of the money supply is essentially counterfeiting (regardless of who does it). Because this allows some people to get something for nothing I am morally against any form of inflation, and in fact believe that the abolishing of the federal reserve and return to a commodity money is what should be done, but that’s for a different article.

Second, is taxation, taxation is basically a fancy word for theft; it is the forceful taking of money. If you think there is no force involved, try not paying your taxes.

Now, combining: the fact that the only way the government can get money is by stealing, either through direct taxation or inflation, with the necessary absolutism of bringing together a non-aggression axiom with property rights in every single case it is morally impermissible for a government to exist. Even if government did somehow work economically I would still be morally against it for these reasons.

Many people simply do not take this moral argument to mind when they think about government or anarchism, the next time you think about how good the national defense is or about how good it is to have welfare, then ponder if you think it is OK that this was done, by definition, through the forceful stealing of someone else’s hard-earned money.

Conclusion

In conclusion if I have not converted you to my way of thinking I at least hope you no longer may think I am not just a lawless teenager with a purple Mohawk and a bone in my nose (well an extra one).

Further

Most of the reading I have done in this subject was done with printed articles whose links were subsequently lost, here are some of the things that survived, even if it isn’t as comprehensive as I would have liked.




Site Updates

I’ve changed the appearance of the main site. I tried to make it look cleaner and changed the positioning of some aspects.
With the update I created a new poll which asks the reader’s take on anarchy after taking in my arguments, please vote in the poll and then comment on this article with your take.
Also, the short book series will be back next week as my next recommended book goes along with the upcoming economic topic.

Quote of the Week

“On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers."
-Murray Rothbard