So an anarcho-cap friend of mine was telling me that there would be several groups within a society that meet together to propose new ideas for rules and regulations on what society does, but he told me that the citizens would vote on each and every one of these rules and regulations.
If this is true, is anarcho-capitalism a basic form of direct democracy? Do all rules apply everywhere (meaning there are no individual rules that would vary state-by-state)? How are taxes collected?
It simply means the lack of a State.
You have an anarcho-cap friend? Really!? They still exist?!
No way in hell that this guy is a market anarchist. That sounds more like libertarian socialism or somthing of the like.
Anarcho-Capitalism, Voluntaryim, Anarcho-Capitalism is simply the belief that coersive power is not necissary in a society
You are in a state of perfect liberty and can do whatever you like so long as you do not interfere with the property rights of other individuals, democracy does not play any role in the lives of anyone at all, unless individuals voluntarily subigate themselves to some sort of organization that follows democratic principals, or indeed any other.
It seems to me as if you are generally confused about all related concepts. If you are interested, befriend me and I can attempt to answer all of your questions on a one to one basis.
an anarchist has no need for taxes but an ancap has especially no need for them as, for both anarchists, there will be no state under anarchy.
The market is a far different creature than direct democracy. It’s actually everyonecracy, not democracy.
so if a street needs to be repaired what do you do?
Whose road is it?
So everyone creates their own rules and expects others to follow them? It seems that ancap raises way too many questions.
Well, this is not exactly the most accurate way to put it. In an anarchist society, the rules are decided by the owner of any given parcel of property. It would be ethical to follow these rules, but without any underlying code of ethics it follows that these rules would have to be enforced. The owner of the property can decide to enforce the rules imposed by his own means, or he could outsource the job to a private security firm, or choose amongst a myriad of options to achieve these means.
In regards to roads, I provided a real-life example of a private road network: In Search of that Mythical Free-Market Road Network. It is based on my own experiences with roads in rural Spain.
Call the road owner and ask that they fix it.
Everyone currently creates their own rules for their own property, no? If someone breaks the rules, you ask them to leave your property, right? If so, then what is the problem with everyone making their own rules for their own property, if people already do it?
How is he paid?
So do rules only apply to property? If there is no rule against killing someone on your property and you do just that, what happens then?
your body is your own property
Not only would such a rule violate the rights of other, who would make such a rule in the first place?
In this case, there would probably be a series of events which would lead to the killer either being ostracized for an “irrational” course of action, or being lauded since there is a possibility that perhaps the killing was justified (threatening trespassing, et cetera). And yes, rules would apply to property; everything would likely be privatized.
How is who paid? The owner of the road? Simple. He applies a toll to those who use his road. He is offering people a product/service (the road) and in return they would have to pay him to use it.
I dislike how very unrealistic situations are presented as possible flaws in anarcho-capitalism. What if the state suddenly decides to legalize murder? It’s as realistic as the situations statists often put forward.So can I use it as an argument against statism?
Your friend is not Ancap. We have not rules for society, and the market is not a democracy. A democracy is coercive, a market is voluntary. The act of voting in practice is the act of compelling your neighbor to do things they wouldn’t otherwise. A democratic process is the antithesis of a market. Easy to confuse though and I once fell victim to this fallacy.