The_Dunedan

Yup.

Who says these things have to be State-driven? Have you any notion how many jobs could be created by privatising, for instance, roads?

Let's imagine, for a moment, that I am someone marginally wealthy. Let's say I have $2,500,00. in today's money to invest. Now, the last figure I heard on the construction of roads was that they usually cost about $1,000,000.00 per mile to grade, pave, etc, leaving perhaps only $500,000.00 to purchase rights-of-way, pay for contract Archaeologists or hordes of eager graduate students to conduct a survey and make sure I'm not running over any Native American funeral sites, and etc.

So I'm smart. I put my little stretch of road, after buying the appropriate rights-of-way from the landowners affected, in an area where it'll connect people to a primary resource (a grocery store or feedlot for country-folk, or urban parents to better-performing suburban schools) that they want faster, more convenient access to. Then, I charge tolls for travellers, and sell subscriptions to locals. Folks with subscriptions get a catchy bumper-sticker, rather like an inspection sticker, but just showing that they're paid up. Subscribers don't have to go through the tollbooth, but can instead use an EZ-Pass-type device for instant access. Anyone who tries to "crash" the Subscriber lane in toll-booths and doesn't have one of these passes gets their picture taken, which gets them hunted down by some gentlemen we'll discuss shortly.

Now, this bumper-sticker has a function besides recording your subscription. It also prominently displays, in large and friendly red letters, a 1-800-How's-My-Driving telephone number, like you sometimes see on the back of 18-wheelers. If you behave like an idiot, people can call in a complaint to me (or someone who works for me, anyway) about the problem-child. The sticker also shows a subscription number which, in this case, is used rather like a license-plate number to keep track of complaints. If you get more than, say, two complaints in 90 days, you lose your subscription rights and your EZ-Pass is canceled, so the computers won't recognise you when you go through the tollbooth.

Which brings us back to those gentlemen I mentioned a moment ago. At each end of the road are the tollbooths. In these tollbooths are barriers. Large ones. These barriers are controlled by equally large gentlemen with a love for cars. When someone makes an irreconcilable ass of themselves, these large gentlemen raise the large barriers, creating a -very- large traffic jam at the opposite end of the road if it's crowded, and simply cutting the miscreant off if it isn't. Either way the large gentlemen get to keep the car, but the best thing is when they catch some jackass when everyone's been stuck for an hour while they search the jam, armed with pictures of a car which is being driven by a muppet. When the muppet is caught, it is subjected to much malicious mockery and much public embarassment while being relieved of it's transportation and a taxi or friend is called.

I think people would behave on a road like that. I think they would -use- a road like that, because other people behaved themselves. And I think subscriptions and tolls could pay for its' upkeep nicely, given the proper location.

I am willing to concede that the military functions are best left to the State. However, I am an old fan of a bumper-sticker involving bake-sales and bombers. The Military should be run by the Gov't, but only funded by it insofar as it was able to collect money through voluntary fundraising efforts, such as lotteries, pledge drives, etc. A peacetime military has no need for excess, and a defensively-oriented (as I abohor offensive war) military is not nearly so difficult to maintain as the offensive/dominant-superpower machine we are today obliged to support. In wartime, the defensive needs of the nation should be primarily borne by the militia, the Fyrd, whatever you wish to call it. Such men and women could be asked to sign up to serve for a set (and firmly fixed) term with organized formal armies (ala the Continental Army) and be provided with weapons, ammunition, kit and pay; or they could elect to remain members of the Unorganised Militia, working in private concert with the "official" formations but obliged to provide all their own kit. Such a system provides for a significant check against the growth of an overly-powerful military, with the capability and the means to wage offensive war either internally or externally.

The State, as it is unavoidably and without exception an instrument of armed and violent coercion, has -zero- business educating children.

As above, imagine this scenario. I am again a young investor with $2,500,00.00 to play with. My parents own a city home in a fashionable suburb, along with a country home out in the mountains. I know from talking to them that both areas have dozens of kids, and I decide to build a couple of schools.

I shop around the real-estate ads, I talk to local Churches about buying their facilities and paying to set them up elsewhere, and I eventually end up with a pair of de-commissioned Former First Baptist Churches. I knock the steeples off, convert the chapel into two floors with a number of classrooms and labs, and start accepting students. If I spend $1,000,000.00 per site, that leaves $250,000.00 per site to hire staff, and I hire the best and highest-recommended teachers I can find. I network with other educational entrepreneurs and certification centres, vetting prospective employees and hiring only those who come with good preferences.

Then I start accepting students. I don't turn any student away until the place is full, and tuition is based upon the cost of upkeep and salaries divided by the number of students. Additional funds come from sport ticket sales, fundraisers, raffles, etc, and could be used to offset those students who's families could not afford to pay. Teacher pay could be saved on considerably by simply providing room and board on-site.

Again, I see no reason why the education of children, which is of the utmost importance to the survival of our species, should be left to so murderous and rapacious anentity as the State. You'll note that the only thing I regard the State as being any good for is warfare; there's a reason for that.

Edited to add:

Ballocks. Anarchism is the only consistent expression of Rights; the absolute right to do as you wish, with consenting partners or customers or whomever, until and unless you violate someone else's equal and co-extant right to do likewise. Anarchism, at least my alternate-Thursdays flavour of it, does not recognise the ficticious "right" of people to steal from and enslave others simply because it is popular and sanctified by some farcical (but sadly non-aquatic) ceremony.