Reasons Why I'm Open to Anarcho-Capitalism
A friend asked me for reasons why I'm open to anarcho-capitalism. This is what I said:
One reason: a traditional government involves the use of force. It has to maintain a monopoly on the use of legal retaliatory force in a given area, and that involves force. Its fundraising mechanisms typically involve force as well (whether taxes or tariffs or what have you). I think that such uses of force are a problem (not the most urgent or pressing at the moment, but still problems). And I think that problems are in principle solvable.
Another is that I think there is a relationship between the rationality and decency of the people in a society and the amount of govt necessary to thwart the use of force in that society. Compare how many cops you'd need in a high crime urban neighborhood vs Galt's Gulch. And I'm in-principle optimistic about the moral perfectibility of mankind.
Another is that I don't think objections raised to anarcho-capitalism regarding e.g. competing governments going to war with each other are unsolvable. For this I look to certain concrete examples (e.g. consider how civilized countries like the US and Canada resolve border demarcation disputes, which has been rather low on force for some time. Or consider that most big corporations are hesitant to even deal with the risks and uncertainties involved in litigation and heavily prefer settlement. The idea that some competently-run AnCap SecurityCorp would be rushing into battle seems absurd. Note that I am assuming here a corporation run more like a responsible business and less like a criminal syndicate or gang).
Another is that private solutions to government functions viewed as "core" by many (such as the provision of roads) have been made more plausible by the march of technology (e.g. paying-per-mile-of-use for roads is more plausible in the smart phone era).