Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

people are 'good' in the sense that they are not all
hellbent upon assaulting and robbing their neighbors.
If everyone we're so disposed, no amount or protection,
whether S tat eor private, could succeed in staving off
chaos."(69) .
Starting from this assumption, i.e., that while
nearly everyone desires protection only some will desire
aggression against others, he be.1ieves that those
companies most adept at providing protection will get
the bulk of the protection business. But the moment
any agency turned from attracting customers by providing
protection services to coercing individuals into
buying its policies, it would simply "compel them to
buy prot e c t ion fromit scornpet itor sand d r i ve itself
out of business."(70) If an agency initiated violence
against individuals who were not its customers, continues
the anarachist scenario, it would be forced to deal
wi t h the i r defense agencies. Since other agencies are
paid toprot e c t the ireu s t ome r s wh i lethe a g gres s i ve
organization is paid to terrorize others, it would find
itself in direct confrontation with all other agene
i e s • This W 0 u I d rna ke wo r kin g for the c rim ina I agenc y
increasingly risky and it would have to pay its employees
more money to compensate for this. Aggression
would become correspondingly less profitable and therefor
e 1 e s sat t r act i ve as the inc rea sed cos t s tot he
criminal company compelled it to raise its premiums.
The victims of theft, argues David Friedman,
will b e will i n g t 0 pay m0 ret 0 be pro t e c ted
than the thieves will pay to be able to steal
(since stolen goods are worth less to the
thief than to the victim). Therefore the
noncr iminal protection agencies will find it
profitable to spend more to defeat them. In
e f f e c t, the c rim ina I s fig h t a hope I e s s wa r
with the rest of society.(71)
Further, since the defense agencies are paid to protect
their clients from aggression, they would have no reason
to cooperate with the criminal agency. Even if the
criminal agency had its own "court," it is unlikely
that its decisions would be heeded, for any other court
honor ing the decisions would begin to lose its own customers.
Finally, since insurance companies indemnify
their policy-holders against the destruction or theft
oft h e i r pro per t y, a n arc his t s a r g ue t hat the y wo u 1d
have a "vested interest in seeing that values are prot
e c ted and a g g res s i v e v i ole n c e h e I d t 0 ami n i mum. "
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