Schlong of the OPPRESSOR

[The One and Only...]

Originally Posted by Big Papa Goat

Why would their funding be voluntary? And your competing firms are private armies of a sort, no? And how do armies compete?

If a given PDA attempted to become a de facto State by extorting money, it's contituents would hire another firm to defend itself against the agressing company. Said company, now facing the threat of violence and loss of long-term profits, would be in a poor position to handle such a situation. Ultimately a rational entrepreneur would not want to engage in such activities in the vast, vast majority of cases, especially considering the possibility of an armed populace.

PDAs are closer to the police than the army in function. The matter of a large military structured for common defense is another question altogether.

Originally Posted by Sethomas

So, the guy who doesn't have money for protection gets the same service unhindered, right? Otherwise it'd be extortion, right? So you support collectivism, right? That makes perfect sense?

We support collectivist activities in so far as they are based on volunatary relations between individuals. In the case of the guy who is poor, while we of course oppose initiation of force against him by, say, a serial killer, we also oppose paying for his protection through forced asset seizure (i.e. taxation). That being said, there are many different measures which could be taken in market anarchism which would not require a violation of the non-aggression principle to defend said victim. Assurance contracts could ensure useful contributions to charities; PDAs could essentially loan out their services with an interest fee, perhaps even provide a service that looks for careers in order to reduce risk (or contract such a service out to a third-party); the possibilities are literally limitless. One must also take into consideration how unlikely such a person is to exist, assuming he is willing to take an available job.

Personally, I feel that in anarcho-capitalism corporations would internally structure themselves like markets for reasons of efficiency, resulting in a sort of modified syndicalism...