What do you like about the State?

[bills217]

Statists,

We know you can make ad hominem attacks against anarchocapitalism. We know you can construct elaborate strawmen where Wal-Mart monopolizes every good and service and eventually acquires every resource on earth, or aliens from Neptune nuke AC-land into oblivion, or the much-maligned Bill Gates hires a death squad or burns down all the forests or dumps cyanide in the drinking water. Lately, we've even seen you defend theft as a moral practice.

However, even though many of you mock AC as irrelevant fantasy, a pipe dream, a waste of time, accepting the state as an obvious necessity to all but the most delusional...not very many of you actually spend much time defending government!

So here's your chance. Let's be positive, for a change. Tell me what you like about the state. Tell me what the state does that is so moral and upright and good for all that Shake, BCPVP and I will be won back to statism, that HMK will buy a poster of FDR for his bedroom wall, that Nielsio will enlist in the Army, that even Borodog and pvn will weep with shame that they have long persecuted the fine institution that is the State.

Any government in the history of the world is fair game - I'll try to make this as easy as possible for you. The modern US gov't is probably the most relevant since it's what most of us know best. Some of you, presumably, are [censored] proud to be an American. Tell me why.

Arguments I'll consider weak:

1) Gov't is good because it defends us/fights fires/builds roads etc. You mean gov't is the best at something it monopolizes? Really? I guess you could make some sort of a case here but it won't be easy.

2) Gov't does (thing which a large portion of statists don't agree with). When the state is such a no-brainer, it should be easy to come up with good deeds that a consensus of statists can agree on.

ACists,

If you think some of these good deeds might not be so good, the ORLY owl is strongly recommended where appropriate. As is the YARLY owl for the statist rebuttal.

That's it. Go.

[bobman0330]

-uniform and generally fair criminal laws
-ditto business laws
-badass taxing power avoids free-rider problems
-ability to enact egalitarian programs protects society and capitalism from revolt by the underclasses

[Low Key]

So wait, people's defense of government has to inspire someone to want to join the army to be valid? Interesting.

[bills217]

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So wait, people's defense of government has to inspire someone to want to join the army to be valid? Interesting.

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Joke much?

[Low Key]

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So wait, people's defense of government has to inspire someone to want to join the army to be valid? Interesting.

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Joke much?

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Back at ya! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[pvn]

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-uniform and generally fair criminal laws

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-ditto business laws

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Compare



and



with



The market acted against the first two, the government against the second.

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-badass taxing power avoids free-rider problems

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It avoids *some* problems. And creates a whole set of new ones. But the ones it solves are not really problems to begin with, while the ones it creates are. DYSW?

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-ability to enact egalitarian programs protects society and capitalism from revolt by the underclasses

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[pvn]

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-uniform and generally fair criminal laws

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I left out a few.

[ojc02]

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-badass taxing power avoids free-rider problems

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Why are free-rider situations problems that need to be solved?? I've never understood this. If I spend money landscaping my front yard, why do I care that my neighbor's house value goes up a bit?

I guess you're talking about something like roads where no one person would be able to afford to build the road on their own. Well, that's what corporations and investment capital are for.

[Poofler]

It's not a supply side issue. Roads aren't such a problem because you can toll for use. The free-rider problems are where there is no reliable way to actually make a user pay for receiving benefits, despite their demand for it.

[bdk3clash]

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Why are free-rider situations problems that need to be solved?? I've never understood this.

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FFS just read the Wikipedia entry on the free rider problem. It's not a particularly difficult concept to wrap your head around.