Anarcho-Capitalism (optional material, p. 6)
Believing "multiple justice providers" and a "free market" to be one and the same thing, some anarchists have even adopted the bizarre view that anarcho-capitalism has already been achieved by our current system, since the institution that calls itself "government" is "competing" against the Mafia and other gangs that "provide" force. This view seems to reveal an underlying skepticism about the ability of free markets to provide objective value to human beings, inasmuch as it implicitly ascribes the failures of the present political system to a free market. Furthermore, this interpretation would render the entire anarcho-capitalist position nugatory, since its proponents would be advocating nothing in particular—and certainly no challenge to the existing statist system. Perhaps sensing these pitfalls, Rothbard does not adopt this extreme position. Nevertheless, it is the logical conclusion if one falsely assumes that the existence of multiple providers of a product automatically identifies a system as a "free market."      Next page

Previous pagePrevious Return to Primary Course Window Open Review window