Every person has thoughts of a world of perfection; the variations are more numerous than the stars, possibly more numerous than the light waves emitted from the beginnings of time. In order to ascertain the number of corrections that would ail all of society’s ills would take quantum physics equations in astronomical proportions. Yet, even then we may never find a world that in all respects is perfect enough to eliminate all violence, inequality, and or so called fairness.
A great variety of society upon hearing the word Utopianism immediately rationalizes the existence of a large State. The type of State espoused by Mao, Stalin, and Hitler and while these are the extreme of the example, there is another extreme of the word; it relates itself to those who pontificate anarcho-capitalism, as the sophisticated model for society. The idea if only the State would go away private enterprise could solve all problems that arise within a society through the choice of the Free-Market. According to Murray Rothbard this includes the objective use of force.
The Free-Market is an economic model by which no interventions are to be made by third parties not involved in a trade transaction, or exchange. In other words if I as a seller am not selling to you, you don’t get to tax, enforce or otherwise deviate my plans to sell to a consumer by the use of force, and vise-a-versa. Of course a pure free market is only philosophical in nature and never achieved, for as James Madison famously said “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
Madison understood something about the nature of man, and not that man is inheritably evil but first that the free choice to perform malice on others and the market place by force existents. Thus a mode of operandi must exist to dissuade those who would attack property rights and violate the sanctity of the market. Second when you pay someone to use force, that force is corruptible. Lord Acton made the point that “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The part often overlooked is even minimal power is corruptible.
There in lays the declining piece of the puzzle when allowing the market to effectuate force. Just as with governments there is no guarantee that those with the means to use or purchase force will always be of moral standing. One is looking at the equivalent to merger of corporate and state, except it would be the merger of corporate and mercenaries. If not corporate, special interests raising money to hire persons to stop what to them is immoral. The question would be how to regulate the purposes for which force can be used.
Under the Free Market approach anyone owning weaponry can be hired to target any person for any purpose. Again by the Free Market no interventions are to be made by third parties not involved in a trade transaction, or exchange. The hope is one would not be fruitful in such an adventure towards power, though if as anarcho-capitalists picture crime rates would fall and those who wish to continue the business of protection or force, will take any business to keep a profitable balance sheet.
By market operations if crime drops so does the number of protection agencies or agencies of force, making competition scarce as Ludwig Von Mises would concede a monopoly can be born out of the market. Now a market monopoly is always better than a monopoly imposed by force, but what about a monopoly of force created by the market, which then becomes corrupt. The operators already practice efficiency and skill. First the safety of all others would become compromised but so would the ability to vocalize ones displeasure with such a company. Next would be property rights and then the market.
Of course many other processes of the market can create this entanglement or such that are similar in nature. This is because we can apply quantum physics theories to economics. There really is an infinite amount of possibilities for our futures. What needs to be researched further in my humble opinion is how an anarcho human state of being turning itself into one of force and control. What must be remembered is the State existed after man, further more after the thinking man. While there may never be a perfect answer it may help us understand how we can reach further towards the ideal of a pure market.
Jefferson once stated “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” This is because while an Anarcho-capitalist society has the ability to have its members turn deviant on itself; this is not the only possibility. In a true market society it is possible that generations of prosperity pass before such actions are encountered. It may also be that such possibilities are short lived as obverse to the years of tyranny inhibited by nation states. While far from the Utopia of defeating violence, inequality, or fairness, the free market, in the times where the market is able to rein freely the advantages of egalitarianism frolic.
As a society becomes more egalitarian the experience of social mobility becomes affluent and respectable. In order to maintain such a status as a people, information must be disseminated. Another of Jefferson’s wise quotes was that “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Sadly his ideas and the perceptions about the market were held long before the market could create the ability for such information to be dispersed with the rapidity of today. As such it is up to our succeeding generations to formulate the social contracts we wish to create revealing the intuitiveness of the market across the globe.