Defense without Government
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- government bad at doing things, esp complex things (ex: legal systems)
am willing to accept government solution when alternative is worse
- court and police aren't complicated enough to require government
- define National Defense as invasion defense from a neighbor nation
- define Public Good as that where the producer cannot control who gets it (ex: radio broadcast)
often economical to privately produce when combined with public bad (ex: advertisement)
- can't guarantee that a free market produces it
- but must propose a funding model. imperfect, but better than government
- founders of the constitution had a good idea with 2nd amendment, mentions militia
- prob1: Oliver Cromwell proved that a small professional army beats larger unorganized amateur army
- prob2: A large professional army can perform a coup de etat
- soln: combine a small professional army with a large unorganized militia
- we can take that solution and modernize it
- Rudyard Kipling: anarchist poem, story Army of a Dream
- piggy-back off national pastime, popular sport that include mock wargames
- result: everyone is trained in combat as a side-effect
- it's social and voluntary
- ex: David himself participates in the Society of Historical Anachronism
- modernize: paintball, already proven popular and profitable
can be encouraged with nationalistic pride
- now we have a large body of amateurs, only need the small cadre of professionals
- what about the PR advantage of an Apr 15th parade where
Apple, Google, etc. fly drones/jets in shape of logo or do acrobatics
- Some stories that David won't write http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Miscellaneous/story_ideas.htm
- in battle of govt vs. market, david's trying to find atypical alternatives: cultural, open source
- problem with funding the small professional cadre
- possible solution: taxicabs have 1$billion non-repeat customers
- can encourage cultural factors: war bonds, weapons donation
- example: Larry Niven, Oath of Fealty, the private organization that plays the role of government will receive some nationalistic loyalty
- example: Cloak of Anarchy (it's actually an anti-anarchy story)
- example: The Ungoverned, Vernor Vinge, assumes state is poorer and backwards compared to anarchy
Mexico (invader) doesn't think to go around when someone defends
Mexico: What slime you are to use nukes against us!
Private Security: What do you mean us? He's not a customer of ours!
- No current wealthy developed country is worth invading
- if rich, no profit in it
- if poor, can't afford to
- Moral arguments are inadequately convincing
- Hume's ought from is problem
- don't have to win, the range of differences is not all that much
- often can't agree on hypotheticals anyway
- ex: Orwell's review of Hayek and Road to Serfdom and Zilliakis The Mirror of the Past
he misunderstand market power
- David's chosen consequentialism because the economics and reason easier to explain
- What about the warlord problem
- the accumulated wealth of the richest family (Walton's) could pay for only a couple days of today's government
- David would advocate gradual change, to establish alternatives (ex: voucher education)
- Anarchy doesn't require uniform culture
- donations for common defense can come in many forms: spying, information, reporting, bonds, equipment
- Cadre is interacting with the culture
- conferences on the latest weapons tech, training classes, etc..
- might be able to use gift economics (ex: open source)
- businesses employs basic research scientist as a cultural resource (informant)
- status motivation
- Mechanism of outrage is not all that good
- ex: in South Africa, Americans never upset about Black on Black Nigerian Civil War
- Future Imperfect,
- we are really rich today, even the undeveloped is 10x more wealthy than historical norm
References:
- Future Imperfect
- Orwell's critique of Road to Serfdom
- Cloak of Anarchy
- The Ungoverned
- Oath of Fealty
