Difference between revisions of "Anarcho-Capitalism"

Revision as of 17:32, 10 August 2011

Echo of Freedom, Radical Podcast has a podcast related to this aticle Ownership of Self

EoF

Anarcho-Capitalism is a movement self-decribing as an individualist anarchist^[1] political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state and the elevation of the individual in a free market. Most Anarchists disagree with capitalism and, therefore, see the label as a contradiction in terms, disputing its inclusion in the spectrum of anarchism. As with all anarchism, anarcho-capitalism is fundamentally against proactive physical coercion and has no metanormative opposition to voluntary communism or syndicalism. In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, any formerly state-provided institutions or services that consumers demanded would be provided by voluntarily-funded or voluntarily-formed organizations, with defense and security being provided by private defense agencies or communal militias rather than through taxation, and where money is privately produced in an open market.

Deontological anarcho-capitalists, such as Murray Rothbard, claim that no state is morally justified, and that the traditional functions of the state thus ought to be provided by voluntary human interaction. Others, such as David Friedman, claim that the state is economically and socially suboptimal and that non-physically coercive human interaction yields greater Marshallian efficiency.

There are some anarcho-capitalists that do not view anarchism as requiring titles, but see it as an attitude with hyphenations merely describing the means by which they seek to attain anarchy; that is, where no human owns any human. In fact, they are more properly described as anarchists and capitalists. For instance, they view debt and monopolization as probabilities that could bring about archism, so anarchists use capitalistic methods to prevent or limit these, including to avoid business with those that do not follow ways to avoid archism, which stems from the idea that "activity produces wealth". For example, some refuse business with companies that are monopolistic or that are developing into a monopoly, and others also refuse trade with those that do not divest to an extent or release debtors every seven years, regardless of how much was owed. Indeed, a few call themselves competists, rather than capitalists, as they view competition as necessary to obtain better products (or capital).

Theory

Anarcho-capitalism is a consistent version of capitalism, where coercive public monopolies would no longer exist.

Anarcho-Capitalism embraces the free market, which contrasts with collectivistic anarchist philosophy. It should be noted that most anarcho-capitalists define the words "capitalism," "free market" and "private property" differently from collectivistic anarchists.

• Capitalism: economic system where production is, at least, originally privately owned, where business decisions and correction are determined through the operation of a free market.
• Free market: market where all decisions regarding transfer of possessions, including items and services, are voluntary.
• Private possession (or property): possession gained by the invention of it, by mixing one's labor with unused and unpossessed material or material already owned by that person, by voluntary trade or as a gift.

This difference in terminology is often the basis for controversy.

Though the first self-described anarcho-capitalist was 19th century individualist anarchist Voltarine de Cleyre, anarcho-capitalism as a defined political philosophy did not emerge until the 1950s, coming out of the tradition of classical liberalism, and generally setting itself in contrast to all forms of coercion and collectivism. Murray Rothbard, an Austrian economist influenced by work of individualist anarchists like Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner, is often described as the founder of anarcho-capitalism.

Varying Views on Intellectual Property

While some Anarcho-capitalists support intellectual property, others oppose it, claiming that intellectual property infringes on physical property. They hold that intellectual property laws "in effect grant the holder the right to control the property and bodies of other people". [1] These anarcho-capitalists consider intellectual property to be equivalent to mercantilism, the system under which monarchs would grant exclusive monopolies to companies in a certain industry or territory.

Jeremy Sapienza, founder anti-state.com writes, "Is there nothing more preposterous than equating intellectual property, whatever the hell that is, with real, personal property?"[2].

Roderick T. Long argues that intellectual property violates the freedom of the speech and of the press: "To enforce copyright laws and the like is to prevent people from making peaceful use of the information they possess. If you have acquired the information legitimately (say, by buying a book), then on what grounds can you be prevented from using it, reproducing it, trading it? Is this not a violation of the freedom of speech and press?" [3]

In cases where anarcho-capitalists support intellectual property, it stems from the idea that property arrives from activity or labor, internal or external not being a subject of debate.

Lysander Spooner, who supported copyright and patents, wrote in his THE LAW OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; OR AN ESSAY ON THE RIGHT OF AUTHORS AND INVENTORS TO A PERPETUAL PROPERTY IN THEIR IDEAS [4]: "man's ideas are his property. They are his for enjoyment, and his for use. Other men do not own his ideas. He has a right, as against all other men, to absolute dominion over his ideas....So absolute is the author’s right of dominion over his ideas that he may forbid their being communicated even by human voice if he so pleases". [5]

Murray Rothbard, a defender of copyright but not patents, claimed, "Let us consider copyright. A man writes a book or composes music. When he publishes the book or sheet of music, he imprints on the first page the word “copyright.” This indicates that any man who agrees to purchase this product also agrees as part of the exchange not to recopy or reproduce this work for sale. In other words, the author does not sell his property out­right to the buyer; he sells it on condition that the buyer not reproduce it for sale. Since the buyer does not buy the property outright, but only on this condition, any infringement of the con­tract by him or a subsequent buyer is implicit theft and would be treated accordingly on the free market. The copyright is there­fore a logical device of property right on the free market....and this copyright would be per­petual, not limited to a certain number of years. Obviously, to be fully the property of an individual, a good has to be perma­nently and perpetually the property of the man and his heirs and assigns". [6]

In Linda and Morris Tannehill's "The Market for Liberty", they supported intellectual property in a number of ways. In their advocacy of private property, they state, "A man’s life is made up of time, so when he invests his time in material or intellectual property (ideas) he is investing parts of his life, thereby making that property an extension of his life." [7] In Chapter 7, they mention how free courts would be used to help an inventor in a conflict with "Handy-Dandy Kitchen Gadget". [8]

The debate over intellectual property among anarcho-capitalists is still on-going.

Wage Labor

Anarcho-capitalists state that an employer-employee relationship may be a mutually profitable form of voluntary association. They resent government as a parasite that corrupts, biases, impedes and distorts what would otherwise be peaceful fair and free associations.

Anarcho-capitalists consider that in consenting to a contract, that each party was free to refuse, the contract is voluntary and therefore legitimate and beneficial, claiming any external power that attempts to prevent such relationship is itself an oppression.

Anarcho-capitalists argue that, no matter what social organization may or may not exist, social organizations will never eliminate the basic human requirement to work in order to support themselves. Therefore an objection based on a constraint that cannot be overcome is useless to argue about and not a rational objection at all. Additionally, they argue that while someone may not be able to refuse to work in general, one has the largest diversity on the free market with regard to their employers or beginning their own business operation. What matters is that no given employer/employee contract be coercive. Thus, anarcho-capitalists believe that an individual may choose to work in any manner they wish, be it for a wage or for some other means of payment, so long as there is no coercion involved.

Criticism of Anarcho-capitalism

“Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice and Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.” ~ Mihail Bakunin

Some collectivist anarchist criticism of anarcho-capitalism resembles criticism of mainstream libertarianism

Anarcho-capitalism is a view that departs from collectivistic anarchist theories in that it regards coercive public entities as unnecessary and harmful to human society, but embraces capitalist economics. Anarcho-capitalism contradicts collectivist anarchism, an anti-capitalist philosophy. Anarcho-capitalism is considered a paradox by collectivistic anarchists, and vice-versa.

Collectivist anarchists purport that there is no form of capitalism that does not rely on the concentration of wealth and the existence of private property, and the need for defense of this property through public or private coercion. They claim that James Donald and Bryan Caplan have attempted (in the 1990s) to frame their arguments in language and documents that appear to be legitimate, because they use certain key phrases and structure and some author's attempts to have some connection to scholarly circles with anarchist legitimacy.

Another major problem alleged by most anarchists against the ideology of anarcho-capitalism is substitution of 'opportunity' for 'freedom', in the philosophical discourse. They professes that anarcho-capitalism ignores the need to maintain the balance of freedoms, balance between positive and negative freedoms, as well as balance between freedoms of different individuals. Concentrating on a select few, anarcho-capitalists show how opportunities allowed to those few are lessened by socialism and thus conclude that socialism is unable to be free. This argument is dominant in the areas where state socialism has been a major ideology gaining or competing for dominance and happens as a result of the dominance of individualistic element in the rebellion.

Quotations

"Anarcho-capitalism, in my opinion, is a doctrinal system which, if ever implemented, would lead to forms of tyranny and oppression that have few counterparts in human history. There isn't the slightest possibility that its (in my view, horrendous) ideas would be implemented, because they would quickly destroy any society that made this colossal error. The idea of "free contract" between the potentate and his starving subject is a sick joke, perhaps worth some moments in an academic seminar exploring the consequences of (in my view, absurd) ideas, but nowhere else." Noam Chomsky

"Nobody talks more of free enterprise and competition and of the best man winning than the man who inherited his father's store or farm". C. Wright Mills

"We must therefore turn to history for enlightenment; here we find that none of the proclaimed anarchist groups correspond to the libertarian position, that even the best of them have unrealistic and socialistic elements in their doctrines. Furthermore, we find that all of the current anarchists are irrational collectivists, and therefore at opposite poles from our position. We must therefore conclude that we are not anarchists, and that those who call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground, and are being completely unhistorical." Murray N. Rothbard

External links

Criticism of Anarcho-capitalism

• Between Anarchism and Libertarianism: Defining a New Movement by Jeff Draughn
• Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy - by Peter Sabatini
• The New Right and Anarcho-capitalism, by Peter Marshall
• Anarchism and Capitalism, by Andrew Flood
• Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism
• Replies to Some Errors and Distortions in Bryan Caplan's "Anarchist Theory FAQ" version 5.2
• Collection of texts about "anarcho"-capitalism and right-wing "libertarianism" (theanarchistlibrary.org)