Please put these away... Monday, July 19, 2010
I'm aware of a number of arguments that minarchist libertarians offer against their anarchist friends. For whatever reason, the arguments which minarchists mention most frequently happen to be the least persuasive. Here's one:"Without a state, people might mistreat other people. So we need a state."
It's not very compelling when expressed so succinctly. It doesn't even follow. In order to reach a conclusion about states, you need a premise about states. One might claim, for example, that people are less likely to be mistreated when a government is involved. A few thousand years of human history indicate otherwise, however.
Here's another one:
"Anarchy is unlikely. So we should favor a state."
This one doesn't follow either. Whether or not anarchy is likely is a positive fact about the world. It has no bearing on the normative question of whether or not anyone should favor a state. Indeed, the only statistically likely arrangement is tyranny. I've yet to meet anyone who would cite this as evidence in favor of tyranny.
Here's another:
"Without a state, markets would be inefficient due to collective action problems, asymmetrical information, moral hazard, and the like. Se we should favor a state."
Again, this doesn't follow. It doesn't even make sense. If people tend to commit those resources at their disposal to their own selfish concerns, it's just wishful thinking to suppose that those same people, if organized into a state, would begin to commit the resources at their disposal to the resolution of economic inefficiencies. In a world with more than a hundred governments, without exception the tendency has been for heads of state to live well at the expense of their subjects while implementing policies that make markets even less efficient.
Dear minarchists: Please retire these arguments. Don't bother trying to rehabilitate them, or to pad them out with more verbiage. If you have any better arguments, great, but let go of these. They aren't worth hanging on to.
Labels: anarchy, arguments, fallacies, minarchism
[ posted by James @ 10:19 PM | | Digg this! | del.icio.us | Permanent link | links to this post ]
