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The Philosophy of Freedom/Libertarianism/Doctrine of free will / Is the state truly necessary?

« on: July 25, 2016, 11:41:36 PM »

Very recently did I come across the ideas of people like Stefan Molyneux and Adam Kokesh about voluntaryism and the political theory that follows. Soon after, I became an anarcho-capitalist. But recently I converted to a more classical liberal approach after listening to people like Sam Seder give arguments against libertarianism. I've come to realize that anarchists seem to have an underlying assumption about how people will self-organize when you abolish a state. We have seen examples of free markets in the past, but to say that they were any sort of utopia would be disingenuous. China for example has a very free market. They have minimal regulations on food quality and factory regulation. When workers were committing suicide at an incredibly high rate in factories in China because of the terrible working conditions, the companies didn't make conditions better. They instead mandated that workers sign a waiver that they will not commit suicide. WTF. Also, how could you enforce a contract if you didn't have a government. I just don't see how this could work.

If this is how the free market organizes itself, then I don't think that it should be allowed to exist at all. Of course philosophically, the non-aggression principle is sound. However, if we have to compromise a significant amount of the average person's quality of life just to uphold a philosophical principle, then as a pragmatist I don't think that's a good idea. I'm still very much in favor of a smaller government. But, regulations are what allows our economy to function properly.