Objectivist Ethics and the State

[Aziz 2 Al-Jabir 2]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 11:52 PM, Eiuol said:

Hmm, I wonder what sort of way you could organize society so that you could easily annihilate the companies that deviated from a principle of non-imitation of force. We don't want to tolerate those who initiate force. We'd need a way to ban the imitation of force outright and not allow companies that use it to operate near us. Maybe even allow something like states or provinces such that there are some checks and balances from that standard-setting institution. It'd be revolutionary, I tell you!

As I've stated, you don't have to tolerate them. There would be very few that would exist and the small minority that did would easily be destroyed and would teach such future companies a lesson.

What if the states or provinces you are talking about decide to initiate force? Then you're in trouble. The historical record is clear. Governments fail to provide ethical systems of justice and grow bigger than when established. As prosperity increases under a free-market the more people will want this prosperity. If there is a centralized coercive agency that has control of the guns they will not be too keen on hesitating to violate whatever ethical standards you put in place (which they must enforce by the way). This is why the United States government grew from the smallest, least powerful government in existence at the time to one of the largest, most powerful governments the world has ever seen.

This is all beside the fact that freedom and government are incompatible. Nearly all governments in existence have stolen money under the threat of violence and although you might want one that doesn't, you will still have certain human beings arbitrarily selected to have more power than others and hold a coercive monopoly on defense, justice, etc.