What is AC?

[valenzuela]

Of course I wouldnt mind a goverment that charged 0,1% tax and did everything nicely.
The problem I have with states is that they tend to be ineffective. For instance some goverments protect the enviroment really nicely, but on the other hand they are very crappy at controlling crime.
Some goverments have a nice crime control but on the other hand they have a HUGE tax burden.
and so on.
The dutch goverment has a nice respect for personal liberties but on the other hand who knows what theyre doing wrong.

[WordWhiz]

[ QUOTE ]
the Dutch government lets you smoke pot and pay for sex.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's the exact problem. I shouldn't have to rely on someone else's mercy to engage in mutually beneficial transactions, decide what to put in my own body, or in any other way exercise personal autonomy.

[Murray Rothbard]

[ QUOTE ]
The supreme "rule" in Nature is that the stronger survives -- and, in the process, takes away as much as he pleases from the weaker. There are no human laws, no human morality, no constraints at all when adopting "natural law". Humans already (but briefly) experimented with the application of "natural laws" in politics. In economics, we have AC, where strength is measured by ownership and management of property.

Mickey Brausch


[/ QUOTE ]

Many critics complain that the free market, in casting aside inefficient entrepreneurs or in other decisions, proves itself an "impersonal monster." The free-market economy, they charge, is "the rule of the jungle," where "survival of the fittest" is the law. Libertarians who advocate a free market are therefore called "Social Darwinists" who wish to exterminate the weak for the benefit of the strong.

The free market, in fact, is precisely the diametric opposite of the "jungle" society. The jungle is characterized by the war of all against all. One man gains only at the expense of another, by seizure of the latter's property. With all on a subsistence level, there is a true struggle for survival, with the stronger force crushing the weaker. In the free market, on the other hand, one man gains only through serving another, though he may also retire into self-sufficient production at a primitive level if he so desires. It is precisely through the peaceful co-operation of the market that all men gain through the development of the division of labor and capital investment. To apply the principle of the "survival of the fittest" to both the jungle and the market is to ignore the basic question: Fitness for what? The "fit" in the jungle are those most adept at the exercise of brute force. The "fit" on the market are those most adept in the service of society. The jungle is a brutish place where some seize from others and all live at the starvation level; the market is a peaceful and productive place where all serve themselves and others at the same time and live at infinitely higher levels of consumption. On the market, the charitable can provide aid, a luxury that cannot exist in the jungle.

The free market, therefore, transmutes the jungle's destructive competition for meagre subsistence into a peaceful co-operative competition in the service of one's self and others. In the jungle, some gain only at the expense of others. On the market, everyone gains. It is the market—the contractual society—that wrests order out of chaos, that subdues nature and eradicates the jungle, that permits the "weak" to live productively, or out of gifts from production, in a regal style compared to the life of the "strong" in the jungle. Furthermore, the market, by raising living standards, permits man the leisure to cultivate the very qualities of civilization that distinguish him from the brutes.

It is precisely statism that is bringing back the rule of the jungle—bringing back conflict, disharmony, caste struggle, conquest and the war of all against all, and general poverty. In place of the peaceful "struggle" of competition in mutual service, statism substitutes calculational chaos and the death-struggle of Social Darwinist competition for political privilege and for limited subsistence.

[Copernicus]

Its the last two letters of HVAC and has far less relevance to the real world than heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

[MelchyBeau]

AC is very dangerous. I am sure it has caused plenty of deaths over the past few years. Whatever you do, do not stick your finger into an electrical outlet. and Don't whiz on the electric fence

[valenzuela]

[ QUOTE ]
statism is very dangerous. I am sure it caused 260 million deaths over the last 100 years.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP.

[Poofler]

I'm mostly unfamiliar with AC, but I've always wondered how it deals with free-rider issues in certain areas where the state currently coerces tax payment. Surely if a fire engulfs your home, even without payment to that protection service, the fire must be put out for the safety of others and their property. Can someone enlighten me?

[Propertarian]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm mostly unfamiliar with AC, but I've always wondered how it deals with free-rider issues in certain areas where the state currently coerces tax payment. Surely if a fire engulfs your home, even without payment to that protection service, the fire must be put out for the safety of others and their property. Can someone enlighten me?

[/ QUOTE ] For the most part it doesn't. This is why Borodog made that preposterous post claiming that the free rider and public good problems don't occur in the market, defying logic and experience.

[WordWhiz]

We really need to get cracking on that FAQ. Short answer: homeowners' associations will likely require fire insurance as an additional CC&R to prevent negative externalities such as this. And no, HOA's aren't the same thing as govt because they are voluntary.

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm mostly unfamiliar with AC, but I've always wondered how it deals with free-rider issues in certain areas where the state currently coerces tax payment. Surely if a fire engulfs your home, even without payment to that protection service, the fire must be put out for the safety of others and their property. Can someone enlighten me how this works in AC?

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you paint your house even though it gives the town folk a free view?