"Government is a necessary evil"

[Singu]

Well the problem with some "really rich private corporation" ruling over everything, is no different than some really rich king ruling over everything. We'd just go back to feudalism.

In fact we really are going back to feudalism, since the people with the most money and economic power right now are the land-owners and bankers.

Adam Smith didn't envision some anarcho-capitalist libertarian dream land when he talked about the "invisible hand", he envisioned a capitalist economic system that is managed under fair rules. That's why he wrote his book "Wealth of Nations", and not "Wealth of Individuals". He wanted to know how to make nations richer.

[Ave]

Adam Smith didn't envision some anarcho-capitalist libertarian dream land when he talked about the "invisible hand", he envisioned a capitalist economic system that is managed under fair rules. That's why he wrote his book "Wealth of Nations", and not "Wealth of Individuals". He wanted to know how to make nations richer.

I am completely aware of this, I was actually citing Nozick and not Adam Smith. Nozick used the argument of the "invisible hand of the market" in a diffrent context than Adam Smith did, even though the meaning was essentially the same. Where Adam Smith used it to refer to the way in which the market tends to regulate itself within the framework set by government of regulations and anti-trust laws, Robert Nozick conceived of an anarcho-capitalist society where different private agencies would enforce law. Nozick argued that the most succesful one of these agencies would ultimately get everyone to follow its code of enforcement and would create a monopoly, which would make it into a state. This was basically referred to as an "invisible hand" argument for the creation of the state, rather than social contract (constitution). If I recall correctly Nozick called it the "immaculate conception of the state" (because it was born without force but through voluntary processes?).