I believe the state leads us to live with a dependence upon technology that would not otherwise be affordable without the state
I don’t think the problem may be this large, but I am currently thinking that government may have at least initially created an over-investment in railroad infrastructure which has been the mother of the entitlement mentality - a company begins to do something useful, the government subsidizes it so that “everyone can have it,” and now everyone expects it as a birthright. I am not sure that this bubble in transportation exists anymore, though.
Everybody – anarchist or otherwise – can see quite clearly that the state subsidizes the transportation industry and it does so with preferential treatement – i.e., some sectors get sbsidies while other sectors are crowded out. That would be gone without the state as it should.
As would old-age pension, police force, army, consumer protection, education, firefighters, and all other things the government provides. Right? Wrong. Simply because the government is currently providing them, it doesn’t mean that the free market won’t be. I personally find roads quite nice, so I would surely support them even without government.
Certainly all of the cheap junk I get from Asia would be gone
You mean that you would actually have more of it because there would be no tariffs and you would keep more of your income?
We can at least agree that space exploration would disappear, right?
the people in the affluent West – are beneficiaries of slave labor from the third world
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I had the impression that food and cotton prices didn’t skyrocket when slavery in the US was abolished. Right? Or is that because we now rely on foreign slaves?
Whithout the state, the vast majority of computer purchases in my city would disappear – as they should.
Imagine what you could do without all of that wasted city money.
prices of oil would be higher
Don’t forget about the 23% embedded tax in goods these days (the hidden payroll, income, and corporate taxes). And that excludes expensive regulation. Furthermore, with all of this antitrust regulation, we operate well below efficient levels.
Cheap oil is used in virtually all of the global economy at the very least, it is used to transport stuff to and from third world countries. Hence, the price of commerce will go up. Everything will go up.
Perfect time for new energy sources. Plus, I think that we currently have embargoes against oil exporting nations, right?