It'll be you with a gun facing 5 thieves with 5 guns. Is my thinking¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Discussion
And the thieves will back away slowly and find something else to do. Probably stealing something unattended. Those that don't adopt that policy won't live long enough for most citizens to encounter one in a lifetime.
The government doesn't exist to protect the public against the criminals. Its there to protect (big) criminals against the public.
And how would you defend in the new utopia from the big coorporations? They can fund their military anyways. Only small people need stata sponsored Police. The rich would in every escenario without state be much more powerful, since this is just the way any good monarchy was working or is still working today.
Good questions, and I disagree with Rothbard on the answers.
Re police.
Private police will be for rich people, transport corridors and commercial precincts. Like the old days.
Working-class neighborhoods will have an old man sweeping leaves and asking "Oi! 'Oo are you?" if you don't look like you belong. And someone else with a rifle behind a blind on an upstairs window watching to see if you pull a weapon.
Like many "ethnic" areas of my city today. There are surprisingly few f_ckups, when one happens its all over the news for days.
Re corporations.
Without the State, who will defend the Board's interests against their managers?
And who will defend the managers' interests against their workers?
Without Big Daddy Government, tens of thousands of pages of legislation and regulations, and a myriad of tax-fed agencies, Big Business will die so fast you'll think it was a conspiracy.
Yeah, we can still have self-executing DAOs living in some blockchain, but if there's no corporate personhood and State enforcement of their rights, then what happens at the linkage between the DAO and real world assets? Private litigation / arbitration is what, and the DAO structure will be at a competitive disadvantage vis a vis sole traders and partnerships.
Blown up story. But sorry this still is the reality that was before democracies came up. Ones with much power control everything and the poor do have nothing to say. People that have free speech to oppose the powerful are imprisoned or shot directly as they are in Russia, Northkorea or Belarus. Those are states that live with your reality. There is no legitimated state. But this does not result in mor equality or anything like it.