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Its much harder to violate people's rights in a libertarian society. When a criminals breaks into your home, he thinks 9 times out of 10 you can't retaliate. You can bet on that. And if they break into your home, they think most of the time you're not at home. Home break-ins are not even that common because it's dangerous. You're very likely to get shot by the owner, who can legally do so. I think the threat of death generally regulate people's behavior.
Please explain how this related to a libertarian society?
For those saying libertarianism isn't anarchy...technically it is, and that's why I went from being a minarchist/small government libertarian to a voluntaryist/anarchist libertarian.
Not even getting into the philosophy itself, just talking the practical side of things, the difference is that minarchists apply free market principles maybe 95% of the time, and anarchist libertarians apply them 100% of the time.
Please explain how this related to a libertarian society?
It's related to incentive. People have no incentive to violate your rights because the risk outweigh's the reward. Hence the threat of lawlessness is reduced. Just because government isn't around doesn't mean everyone all of a sudden become a sociopath
Not sure how you are going to enforce contract law and property rights with no government - do go on?
How do governments enforce their property rights without a government over them?
Maybe I should ask what you think government is so we're talking about the same thing. Sometimes if I say we should have no government, people think I want every man for themselves, or that people shouldn't organize, or something like that. If it's voluntary, it's not really "government" anymore. Not sure if I explained that very well...
It's related to incentive. People have no incentive to violate your rights because the risk outweigh's the reward. Hence the threat of lawlessness is reduced. Just because government isn't around doesn't mean everyone all of a sudden become a sociopath
So I come to you in this society, we write up a contract that you are going to loan me a thousand dollars and I am going to pay you back within the year at 5% interest. Instead, I just pocket the money and tell you to f**k off when you come asking for it a year later. What are you going to do about it?
It's related to incentive. People have no incentive to violate your rights because the risk outweigh's the reward. Hence the threat of lawlessness is reduced. Just because government isn't around doesn't mean everyone all of a sudden become a sociopath
And I'd add that of course people will still commit crimes and do bad things, but you don't need some authority forcing people to organize to defend against those people and prevent it from happening in the first place. You also don't need to force people to fund anything.
So I come to you in this society, we write up a contract that you are going to loan me a thousand dollars and I am going to pay you back within the year at 5% interest. Instead, I just pocket the money and tell you to f**k off when you come asking for it a year later. What are you going to do about it?
There is much you can do about it. If I ran a scam on someone I have proven that I am not worth doing business with. As a consumer you can inform other consumers to never do business with me ever. You can give them information. Now if someone wants to do business with me, that's at their discretion, and they knew the risk before hand. In a libertarian society accountability is important. The thing is, there is no illusion that things are risk free. When you invest, you only invest what you can afford to lose. If people prove themselves untruthworthy, it's a lost in investment. If you lose all of your money based on an investment or doing business with someone who can't be trusted, then you made a bad investment. That investment was you risk all of your money. That's your fault.
How do governments enforce their property rights without a government over them?
Maybe I should ask what you think government is so we're talking about the same thing. Sometimes if I say we should have no government, people think I want every man for themselves, or that people shouldn't organize, or something like that. If it's voluntary, it's not really "government" anymore. Not sure if I explained that very well...
In libertarian terms the government would be the entity with a monopoly on the legally justified use of force. What I am saying is that people as individuals can be really crappy, and in any sufficiently large society you will have enough of these outliers to require some exercise of state sanctioned force at some point. For instance, I would like a dedicated police force to hunt down violent criminals. Could we just rely on mob justice to take care of it? Sure we could, but you will get more accurate and effective results with an agency whose sole purpose is devoted to it.
More important is contract breaches/white collar crime. Without some overarching authority you could violate any contract you want and as long as you have the biggest posse, no one will do **** about it. The point of the overarching authority is no matter how big a posse you have, it will not be big enough to escape justice. Not saying that this is working super healthily now but its better than mob lynchings in the street.
There is much you can do about it. If I ran a scam on someone I have proven that I am not worth doing business with. As a consumer you can inform other consumers to never do business with me ever. You can give them information. Now if someone wants to do business with me, that's at their discretion, and they knew the risk before hand. In a libertarian society accountability is important. The thing is, there is no illusion that things are risk free. When you invest, you only invest what you can afford to lose. If people prove themselves untruthworthy, it's a lost in investment. If you lose all of your money based on an investment or doing business with someone who can't be trusted, then you made a bad investment. That investment was you risk all of your money. That's your fault.
Ok, let's try a different situation. One morning, you wake up and find out that one of your child/wife/parent/sibling was gunned down in the street, no witnesses. Are you going to have the time, skills, forensic knowledge, and man power to:
A) Accurately figure out who actually commited the crime.
B) Bring that person to justice assuming they are part of say, a powerful gang
Or would you rather have trained forensic and police professionals to handle that? Maybe you are actually Liam Neeson?
Ok, let's try a different situation. One morning, you wake up and find out that one of your relatives was gunned down in the street, no witnesses. Are you going to have the skills, phorensic knowledge, and man power to:
No I won't, but that is why you hire a company to aid in the investigation. In a libertarian society there are people who would do with police departments do. The key is that they would private for profit businesses that you can hire at your own discretion. This hypothetical forensic company has all of the incentive to come back with results. If they can't, then it's up to you to never do business with them again.
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