The Machinery Of Freedom: Illustrated summary

Original presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YfgKO...
David Friedman's website: http://daviddfriedman.com/

Crowdfunding campaign for the 3rd George Ought to Help animation: http://www.indiegogo.com/Albin-and-th... (your help is greatly appreciated!)

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  Education

[00o00o0o0oo0ooo]

If a bunch of the agencies just merged together or bought out one another, it would just be a government. There would be incentive to do this because it would eliminate the costs of creating contracts between agencies.

[bitbutter]

"it would just be a government."

Not automatically, widespread ideological support (for compulsory 'subscription fees'/taxation) would also be necessary.

You're also assuming , without justification, that the ideal firm size leaves room for only one firm in a sate-sized territory. I don't believe this is true.

[zargystudios]

Great and informative! If you don't mind, what program did you use to draw the background?

[bitbutter]

Thanks. All the drawing happened in photoshop.

[ZeroRed78]

What he describes is simply how governments were formed. Violence is not too expensive. It's naturally the most efficient way of getting things. He also ignores how easily people are swayed and motivated.

There must be a mechanism to keep any force becoming too powerful. At that point, you've gone down the slippery slope of the government interfering with everything. The best we can do is have a constitution that strictly limits government power. It will get corrupted over time though.

[bitbutter]

"Violence is not too expensive. It's naturally the most efficient way of getting things."

Violence is extremely risky (unless you're already a state). Can you supply any reasoning to support your claim that it's the most efficient way of getting things because it's far from obvious that this is true.

[bitbutter]

"What happens if you can't afford to pay a rights enforcement agency?"

Very probably if you're aggressed against, you then sell your right to restitution to someone who's in a position to exercise it (see: Medieval iceland and the absence of government).

Other alternatives include:

1. Get a job (which would be much easier than it currently is, once all artificial barriers to entering business are removed).

2. Appeal to charity.

[bitbutter]

"is it because it cannot take scrutiny, maybe so."

Or maybe not. You'll notice that I don't delete comments. I welcome scrutiny, but post empty invective and you'll be blocked.

"All you would see if government was dissolved is [blah blah]"

Addres the content of the video if you want to continue commenting here.

[294237soas]

"People are disposable"

- Speak for yourself.

[Aaron Hill]

Wouldn't everyone just pile into the organization that will stand up to the rich organization? Why would I submit to the organization that's too weak/afraid to stand up to the rich one? Thus, only organizations that would stand up to the rich ones would make money. And I'm pretty sure the 99% are much wealthier collectively than the 1%.

[Matthew Kiefer]

I would rather that everyone have a sword and be responsible for their own safety. If one particularly skilled swordsmen becomes a bully, than two friends can gang up on him.

Then the bully gets his friends, then the friends get more, then you have two nations that go to war, and then we're right back to where we are today.

Anarchy, isn't actually possible. It doesn't exist in nature, it can't exist in artifice.

[Exhalent]

Wouldn't you rather have competing gangs than one big one though? It's about decentralization of power.