On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 7:13 AM, Kevin Gallagher <kevin.gallagher@nyu.edu> wrote:
Thanks to everyone for your replies!
On Jul 11, 2017 9:16 PM, "Kurt Buff" <kurt.buff@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 1:22 AM, Kevin Gallagher <kevin.gallagher@nyu.edu> wrote:
Here is where I start to have questions. To my understanding, anarchy is the rejection of heirarchies. Isn't anarcho-capitalism therefore an oxymoron?
No, anarcho-capitalism is grounded in the understanding that free trade among free people is a the only road to peace and prosperity. People arrange themselves in hierarchies all the time, and it's no crime if they do so freely.
For the life of me I can't think of any heirarchies that aren't, at least in part, founded on deceit or force (or both). Can you please give an example of one?
Go into almost any small business with a few employees. By small, I mean under 500 employees. If the employees are happy, you have your answer.
It's often a benefit. This is as opposed to anarcho-syndicalism or various other flavors of anarchism, which are grounded in the belief that money and trade are evil and that love and unicorn farts are sufficient to sustain life.
I do not know these schools of anarchism, but that doesn't seem like a fair assessment.
It is fair.
The existence of currency inherently creates a heirarchy based on the amount of currency one owns, does it not?
No, it does not. There are lots of things to unpack in that statemen/questiont, but I'll just mention two: - Currency isn't money, as such - Fiat currency creation is used by anti-capitalist forces to enrich the few at the expense of the rest of us, destroying capital in the process.
Reading some Murray Rothbard or Ludwig von Mises for starters, would be an eye opener for you.
Fair enough. I will give some of this a read. If I have any questions, can I reach out to you after I have read some?
Sure. If you're really going to read, I'd start with https://www.mises.org. In particular, if you're looking for a quick start, you could do worse than these, which are all free, and available in several formats: The Anatomy of the State: https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays https://mises.org/library/egalitarianism-revolt-against-nature-and-other-ess... For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto: https://mises.org/library/new-liberty-libertarian-manifesto What Has Government Done to Our Money? https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money If you want the master works, then these are the place to dive in - again, free: Human Action: https://mises.org/library/human-action-0 Man, Economy and State, with Power and Market https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market Kurt