A failed state leaves a vacuum, which is statelessness. People believe this is what society used to look like and would look like if there were no government.
Discussion
Not when the people involved have similar ideals and goals. Why would say 100000 people who think like me on these issues suddenly turn into tyrants if we got to actually live out our ideals? Nobody ever says everyone has to do it. That's the whole. Self determination for everyone. You want a king, have a king. You want a fascist strong man, be my guest. I wouldnt recommend either, but its your life to live how you choose.
*live peacefully
that's the idea. There will always be criminality. But when a group grants itself special rights, and gives itself immunity from crimes, well that is a bigger problem than some random criminals running around terrorizing people. Those can be put down. The government will keep coming back with more and more firepower until you submit or die
I'd like to see libertarians and/or anarchists establish their own free society somewhere, as people have tried to do in the past according to other models. Perhaps the Free Private Cities project will succeed in this. I'm aware of the New Hampshire Free State Project, but I don't think it's really gotten much traction, and they are simply trying to take over the state of New Hampshire, not really create a stateless place.
I really like the free private city idea, although one current drawback imo is its a big money proposition generally. I mean, sort of understandable as they gotta get people with capital there to get things going, but out of reach for most currently. As for the FSP, I had actually considered moving there years back when they first chose NH, but life happened so, never got to make the move
I still have to study the Free Private Cities idea further, but one question that comes to mind is why have The Cityβ’ be the ONLY "government" services provider? That means you would have one entity with a monopoly, which may not be the best arrangement. Could it be possible to have competing entities vying for customers to provide government services to?
Its my understanding all rules and such are outlined in contracts. And as more and more exist, they would be in competition with each other. And since the freedom minded are the ones who would moving to these cities, the contract issuing entity (who or whatever that would be) would have incentive to have the best 'rules'. If you don't like city A, check out city B. It wouldn't be so much anyone has authority over another, just contractual agreements between individuals.
I read through the Free Private Cities white paper and found this answer to the question, which agrees with what you said:
"Allowing competing security service providers with their own rules and thus competing legal systems may appear theoretically attractive
for reasons of preventing monopolies. In practice, however, the effort and inconvenience involved (transaction costs) are probably too high. It would take years for rules to develop in the market on how to resolve collisions between the various providers and legal systems. In practice, the owners of the strongest security service could do what they want.
"Once the model of Free Private Cities has proven itself profitable, then competitors will inevitably appear on the scene. This is the best guarantee for the residents that the respective Operators will not abuse their position of power. Apart from that, the right of every contract citizen to self-defence and the corresponding support of third parties against attacks remain unaffected or expressly guaranteed by contract."
Forgot I had this sitting in my inbox.
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/when-governments-compete-you-win
Thanks, I'm going to read this now. Max Borders looks like an interesting author.
By the way, I see you use Substack, as do I. I wish there was a Nostr client that was a Substack clone. I think nostr:nprofile1qqs04xzt6ldm9qhs0ctw0t58kf4z57umjzmjg6jywu0seadwtqqc75spzpmhxue69uhnzdps9enrw73wd9hszynhwden5te0wp6hyurvv4cxzeewv4eszynhwden5te0wfjkccte9enrw73wd9hsxv8qkt's Highlighter app comes closest, but I like the read-aloud function Substack has (which I have only also seen on Snort), and how you can subscribe.
There is this, however:
