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© 2007 Stress. 
…Me? Hell no, I just think the Free Market isn’t the Panacea it’s theorized by some to be—And that the argument of Free Markets being rendered impossible by State Protection/Enforcement of Monopolies, is the same thing as denying that the Modern State—Which to Orthodox Libertarian dogma is the root of Tyranny—Has it’s origins and thus evolution; again, in and from the Free Market…Or at least I think it could be argued.
When I lived in British Columbia there was much grumbling about how the medical system was being privatized by stealth; that is, taken over without any input from the public. So, if the rising disgust in Canada over the system is real, then at least part of that disgust is probably owing to failures of private businesses to deliver the goods. No?
A Very Private War
Jeremy Scahill reports
There are 48,000 ’security contractors’ in Iraq, working for private companies growing rich on the back of US policy. But can it be a good thing to have so many mercenaries operating without any democratic control?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18105.htm
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Mace: Unfortunately, in most places, barring Iceland a few hundred years back or Pennsylvania in the 1660’s, the state came first and has prevented in most cases proper free markets from operating. Capitalism did not create the state. It’s how things work where the state isn’t.
Mike: That’s not the free market, that’s a private contract for government work: Fascism. Just like in the next example…
chris: The question is: can it be a good thing to have so many mercenaries operating with merely democratic control instead of the strictures of the market?
Chris has a good case of private concerns dangerously out of control. Just ask the Iraqis. So it seems to me that the greatest threat to the individual is unchecked concentrations of power, be those power centers private or government or a nasty symbiosis between them.
Of course, but where are there private concentrations of power that aren’t set up by government?
Scott, your point is well taken (and yes my own point was rather banal). But don’t you think it’s likely that if there was no government–only business providing goods and services–that what would emerge eventually is something _like_ a government that starts out as an intermediary among competing private interests, and then evolves to…. to do who knows what? To my knowledge the experiment has never been done, has it?
No, it was a good point. That’s how people become anarcho-capitalists - asking good questions. : )
Actually, I think if the principle that the problem is a geographical monopoly on the right to be a security service is understood, leaving them without one is indeed possible.
See this killer article by Roderick T. Long for example:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/long1.html
That’s a cool story and food for thought. Thanks for the link.
Anytime.
It’s always strange how the faults of government, whether through a regulatory apparatus against the private sector or outright public ownership of the means of production, are attributed to “free markets.” It would be a prudent step to understand the definition of free market before proceeding to a given conclusion about a specific area of the economy.
The following article presents the problems the socialized Canadian health care system entails and the reasons many Canadians are turning to the private sector for better quality medical care. As follows:
The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care