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Posts Tagged ‘Anarcho-Capitalism’

Freedom and Property: Hans-Hermann Hoppe Talks About the Essence of Anarcho-capitalism

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2024

by Stephan Kinsella on November 4, 2024

If you wait a minute the main interview is in English

Freedom and Property: Hans-Hermann Hoppe Talks About the Essence of Anarcho-capitalism

The following interview, conducted by prominent Mexican journalist Sergio Sarmiento, took place in conjunction with the “Una vida por la libertad” award ceremony in honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe in Mexico City on October 10, 2024. (Hoppe Receives Caminos de la Libertad “A Life for Freedom” Award.)

Libertad y Propiedad: Hans-Hermann Hoppe habla sobre la esencia del anarcocapitalismo (Freedom and Property: Hans-Hermann Hoppe talks about the essence of anarcho-capitalism)

Shownotes:

Philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe reflects on the importance of freedom in an era in which equality is considered a priority for many. For Hoppe, true freedom depends on private property, which allows people to act without restrictions from others. In this conversation, he also explains anarchocapitalism: a society governed solely by private law, without State intervention. Furthermore, it offers a critique of the policies of Javier Milei, who has presented himself as an anarcho-capitalist. Could there really be a society without a State?

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TGIF: A Market for Law?

Posted by M. C. on October 6, 2023

Friedman gets the last word (chapter 31): “People who want to control other people’s lives are rarely eager to pay for the privilege; they usually expect to be paid for the services they provide for their victims…. For that reason the laws of an anarcho-capitalist society should be heavily biased toward freedom.”

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-market-for-law/

by Sheldon Richman

dfriedman

Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished.

–Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792

Sometimes an idea that at first sounds nuts isn’t really nuts at all. Case in point: the market-anarchist principle that people should be free to buy the law and protection they want in the market.

Even a subscriber to Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism might raise an eyebrow because Rothbard formulated a libertarian law code that he expected would be carried out in a market-anarchist society. In contrast, the market-for-law market anarchist doesn’t see things that way. How would a single code even be implemented? It’s not as if libertarians agree on everything. Think of intellectual property, abortion, defamation, and more.

David Friedman, a veteran anarcho-capitalist, explicitly favors a market in law, not just in police and arbitration (that is, court) services. Here’s how Friedman describes it in The Machinery of Freedom (chapter 29; free pdf here):

In such an anarchist society, who would make the laws? On what basis would the private arbitrator decide what acts were criminal and what their punishments should be? The answer is that systems of law would be produced for profit on the open market, just as books and bras are produced today. There could be competition among different brands of law just as there is competition among different brands of cars.

In such a society there might be many courts and even many legal systems. Each pair of rights enforcement agencies agree in advance on which court they will use in case of conflict. Thus the laws under which a particular case is decided are determined implicitly by advance agreement between the agencies whose customers are involved. In principle, there could be a different court and a different set of laws for every pair of agencies. In practice, many agencies would probably find it convenient to patronize the same courts, and many courts might find it convenient to adopt identical, or nearly identical, systems of law in order to simplify matters for their customers.

As Friedman sees things, individuals would not directly choose among the competing arbitration firms. They would choose defense firms according to the services offered. Those firms would typically have contracted with others about which arbitration firms they would use if their clients were in a conflict. (Insurance companies already do this.) Customers of course would know about this and would choose defensive firms partly on that basis. The defense firms and arbitrators want to attract customers. These are profit-seekers, remember. Also remember that individuals are customers here, not taxpayers or subjects — an important distinction.

The incentives to submit to and abide by binding arbitration without state-backing would be strong. A defense firm or a customer known for ignoring adverse rulings would have problems doing business in the future. This is the “discipline of constant dealings,” Friedman writes. Its powerful influence cannot be ignored. Even now, it plays out everywhere. It is not mainly due to the state that people generally keep their contracts and even less formal promises. The government did not make eBay or the credit card a success.

See the rest here

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TGIF: Limited Government’s Bait and Switch

Posted by M. C. on October 2, 2023

Well, why does market anarchism, unlike minarchism, inspire reasonable confidence about the chances of protecting liberty? That’s a topic for another day, but suffice it to say that, as Caplan argues, rational self-interest, free competition, the need for a good reputation, and today’s general expectation of peaceful conflict resolution provide our best chance.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-bait-switch/

by Sheldon Richman

gort

In a fundamental respect, libertarian minarchism (minimal, or limited, government) and market anarchism (or anarcho-capitalism) have something important in common: neither can guarantee individual rights.

But there’s a big difference: unlike market anarchism, minarchism appears to offer a guarantee, which allegedly makes it preferable to market anarchism. Actually, it’s a false guarantee, a bait-and-switch. So it’s not preferable to market anarchism, at least on those grounds.

However, what market anarchism can do is show how everyday incentives will tend to protect liberty (and already do now). Minarchism can’t credibly say the same thing because constitutionally limited representative democracy is riddled with well-known perverse political incentives. That makes market anarchism the better bet.

It’s instructive to watch the recent Soho Forum debate on the proposition “Anarcho-capitalism would definitely be a complete disaster for humanity.” Yaron Brook, chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, took the affirmative, and Bryan Caplan, libertarian professor of economics at George Mason University, took the negative. I think Caplan demolished Brook’s case, which isn’t exclusive to Ayn Rand Objectivists. This was a debate between two people starting from similar premises in favor of individual freedom, rational self-interest, and competition.

While what follows may not convince anyone to advocate market anarchism, it should eliminate a big argument against it.

Most limited-government advocates think that only a monopoly government can produce the objective law and fair and peaceful adjudication/enforcement that human beings need to flourish. The problem, as indicated, is that minarchism is all talk. It can’t deliver.

Remember the old joke in which a tourist asks a grumpy local how to get somewhere? The local responds, “You can’t get there from here.” That’s the problem. Brook’s theory of constitutionally limited government promises to get us to a place we cannot go because it doesn’t exist. Why not? As Dr. Seuss might say, because it’s people all the way down. Limited-government advocates ignore this obvious fact.

Contrary to its fans, limited government is conceptually impossible. It, not anarchism, is a “floating abstraction.” If this standard argument for limited government disappears, what’s left?

Any advocate of liberty who knows even a little U.S. political history should see the problem for minarchism. In freedom-loving quarters, the American constitutional system wins kudos  — the obvious serious contradictions such as slavery excepted. But what about the government’s horrendous expansion since 1789? Isn’t that a hint that something did not quite work?

Some Americans began complaining about the bigness of the national government at the turn of the 19th century! And let’s not forget that the first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, denied the national quasi-government the power to tax and regulate trade. Within a few years, that changed. Wasn’t that a bad omen?

See the rest here

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Anarcho-Monarchy: Your Property is Your Kingdom

Posted by M. C. on June 21, 2021

In fact, under a typical government, there is no private property. If you can lose your house for failure to pay property taxes, that’s not your property. The government is renting it to you, like a lord allowing a peasant to work his lands in exchange for tribute.

In contrast, under common law, private property is generally recognized under a two fold test: 1) were you the first person to occupy the land (or acquire it without coercion from the previous legitimate owner) and 2) did you improve the land?

https://youtu.be/ozNCEp0fosA

If government services were transacted exclusively in the free market, we would be living under an umbrella system of anarcho-capitalism. Under such a free market for governance, we would see many different types of societies emerge, and one may be anarcho-monarchism. That is an extreme form of private property, where by owning land, you become the exclusive sovereign over that land. You own it, you set the rules. In this video, I explain how that would work.

Read the article here: https://www.thedailybell.com/all-arti…

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bionic mosquito: Natural Law and Anarcho-Capitalism

Posted by M. C. on June 6, 2020

https://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2020/06/natural-law-and-anarcho-capitalism.html#more

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The purpose of this paper is to give an analysis and explication of the notion of a natural order of human affairs, which is logically independent of any metaphysical or theological system.

In this paper, Frank van Dun (FvD) offers an examination of Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism and its presupposition of a natural order – based on natural law and natural rights.

In short, anarcho-capitalism, in its Rothbardian form, stands or falls with its supposition that there is a natural order – a natural law – of the human world and that each human person has a place in that order that is delimited by his or her natural rights.

It is important that van Dun clarifies that he is dealing with a Rothbardian order, as others base their anarcho-capitalism or libertarianism on foundations other than natural law. Rothbard’s version is not driven by views on efficiency, but on views of human beings as human beings.

It is important, therefore to examine just what is meant by natural law – at least as van Dun sees it. As he notes, “‘Natural law’ is a controversial concept.” One reason it is controversial is that it is often connected to the metaphysical, or otherwise connected to a particular theology. While one cannot escape Aquinas when discussing natural law, this certainly does not make it a Catholic convention – or invention.

However, the fact that some theories of natural law are metaphysical or theological does not mean that natural law is something metaphysical or theological. A theory of mice and men can be metaphysical but the metaphysics is in the theory, not in the mice and not in the men.

FvD then dives into a very important point – one that I have often made, yet still find misunderstood. Natural law legal theory and natural law ethical theory need not be identical. Such thinking results in an unnecessary either / or situation:

…either all natural laws are mere moral admonitions or all of them are legally enforceable requirements. That ambiguity has plagued the interpretation of natural law theories ever since Thomas Aquinas identified natural law and reason.

Natural law: either suggestions for ethical behavior or a system by which to implement a theocracy. But neither extreme is necessary, and in any case not at all intended by Aquinas. Forgive the very long cite, but this is a tremendously important point:

…Thomas clearly distinguished between mere sins (that merit disapproval and repentance) and injustices (that merit ‘action in justice’ and redress). He also distinguished between vices of the sort no virtuous man would engage in and vices that threaten the existence of ‘society’ (not this or that particular society but ‘human society’ as a general form of conviviality or symbiosis): murder, arson, theft, fraud, robbery, assault and other crimes against persons and property. (Summa Theologica, IaIIae, question 96, art.2 (concl). Only with respect to injustice and especially crime can the coercive power of ‘human law’ intervene. In short, while all virtues are necessarily lawful (sanctioned by the rational appreciation of their agreement with divine providence), and all vices are consequently unlawful, only a few vices of a particular sort should be made illegal. ‘Legislating morality’ was not on Thomas’ agenda.

FvD uses the terms “unlawful” and “illegal” to make the distinction. Unlawful being a violation of natural law; illegal being a violation that gets you thrown in prison (or justifies violence in response).

This is consistent with my point that the non-aggression principle fits quite well as a theory of punishment, but not as a theory of ethics. Violations of the natural law that are also aggressions against person or property are subject to the “coercive power of human law.” Non-aggressive violations of the natural law are not, in my opinion, subject to this same coercive power.

I will leave aside, as it is rough around the edges and will be dictated by local custom as much as any other factor, the specific application of the word “aggression.” I don’t think the edges of this term are identifiable by evermore purifying attempts at applying libertarian theory. Human beings don’t work that way. Different societies will figure this out in a way that works for them.

FvD next looks at a comparison of natural law and artificial law. Whether in physics, biology, or chemistry, science attempts to identify the natural order of things. It is no different when working to identify the natural order of persons. This order exists, waiting to be discovered, based on the characteristics of human beings as human beings.

 

This as opposed to artificial law: “An artificial law is an order of artificial things. Here we shall consider it only as an order of artificial persons.” FvD offers as an example, the artificial person known as a “citizen.” States and corporations also qualify. These are defined by the relevant artificial law.

To find out about natural persons, go live among them; to find out about citizens, consult a lawyer!

A breakdown in artificial law happens when people refuse to play by the rules. This could be because they refuse to do so (including for reasons that the rules violate natural law) or when the rules are overly complex and ever-changing. A breakdown of natural law happens when people do not heed the distinction of one person from another. (Egalitarianism in all its forms, run amok.)

What of any obligation for a person to respect the natural law? This, van Dun suggests, is an open question requiring serious thought:

What a natural person can do does not translate into what he may do. What such a person ought to do does not translate into what he must do.

How I see this: A natural person can punch someone in the nose for no good reason; it does not follow that he may do this. A natural person ought not live in a drunken stupor; yet this says nothing about what he must do regarding the consumption of alcohol.

Such an is-ought question is not an issue at all for artificial persons and artificial law. Here, the law is whatever the law is, and the person is whatever the law makes him to be. This is positivism, and it is clear why positivism is anathema to anarcho-capitalists – and many libertarians. Positivism ignores, and even denies, the idea of natural law.

Conclusion

In this paper, van Dun is not attempting to justify natural law, only to examine it and its relationship to anarcho-capitalism. He concludes:

Anarcho-capitalism rests on the notion of natural law as an order of natural persons rather than a binding set of rules or commands. As a normative theory, it holds not only that we have good reasons to respect the natural order but also that we have no right not to respect it.

Building liberty on any other foundation is flawed; it is not sustainable. Only this foundation of natural law takes human beings as they are, not as someone wishes them to be.

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