Trust marketplace, not the government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 8, 2026)

I trust the market more than I trust government. It's easy since I don't trust government at all.

I want everyone to be free to sell what they want to sell, and free to buy what they want to buy. All regulated, not by government rules, but by the hand of the market.

You may say, "But what about human trafficking?" Maybe you haven't noticed, but government isn't able to stop it. In fact, government seems more concerned with protecting the guilty than with protecting their victims. You can probably think of better ways to solve the problem yourself.

No one has a right to violate the rights of others- which selling people does. Everyone everywhere has the absolute human right to do whatever it takes to prevent someone's rights from being violated. Government doesn't like this fact and hopes you forget I reminded you.

Even in more mundane situations, I still trust the market.

Businesses don't want to harm their customers. That's no way to stay in business. When a new restaurant opens, people rush to stand in line to try it out. They don't worry that the restaurant will poison them, and it's not because of the licenses and permits the owners got from government. Government would love for you to believe this is what keeps you safe, but again, government works harder to protect dishonest businesses than to protect their victims.

If a business owner is greedy but can't use government to force you to trade with him or her, this greed is motivation to satisfy you; to draw you back to be their customer over and over again, and to tell others how well the business met your needs. Otherwise, their greed is wasted as they'll go out of business soon.

It's only when a crooked business owner has government connections that satisfying the customer loses its importance. You don't need happy customers if government forces people to trade with a particular business or industry. Either with a mandate or by licensing schemes which crush competition. When this happens, it's not a failure of the market, but a consequence of allowing government to interfere in the market- a situation known as "socialism" or "fascism".

Bad guys stick together and stand up for each other unless something causes a rift between them. In such cases, your welfare doesn't count, and it's already too late for you.

Trust the market; reject government control.

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"Maintaining" anarchy in the face of statists

A statist asked someone else this question:

"Explain how anarchy will be maintained and nobody will make governments, absent compulsion. Hint: You can't. And that's the crux for why anarchism is utopian thinking. It just magically assumes everyone will agree." (profanity edited out)

That's how statists, conditioned to think only inside the coercive government box, look at the world. It's tragic and sick. And there's that misguided "Utopian" claim again.

I've seen variations of this same question many times over the years, and I have addressed them when I encountered them. I guess it's time to address this here (if I haven't already).

Once you realize governments are simply criminal gangs, the question- and the solution- are easier to understand. The veil of legitimacy doesn't change their true nature even a little.

Anarchy doesn't need to be "maintained", at least not in the sense the statist insists. It can't be. It simply is. Already. Trying to "maintain" something in this sense means to govern it. If you try to govern anarchy, you're doing it wrong. "F'ing for virginity", as they say.

Bad people will always try to establish governments, just like bad people murder, rape, kidnap, steal, and trespass. Bad people do bad things, and they won't stop just because you point out that they have no right to do those things. You will have to stop them. It's your responsibility.

The solution is self-defense from ALL archators. With the specific evil of  "making" a government, you have to nip it in the bud before it grows too large to decisively defeat. This was our forbears' mistake, and it's too late to address the problem as they should have done. But there's still a way. Or two.

Theirs is a mistake that needs to be recorded and remembered, so it is never repeated. Crush any newborn government in its crib before it is strong enough to fight back and win. It's your responsibility, and responsibility is half of liberty.

Statists will complain. They'll try to recategorize self-defense as "compulsion" because they are liars. They want to be safe while violating society. That's not my problem.

Just like the person who complained to me that if I didn't allow her to control me, that meant I was controlling her by taking away her ability to control me. Nope. That's a lie, and I'm not buying it.

No one has a right to govern anyone but himself, and anyone who tries is a threat to life, liberty, and property, and fighting back- to the death- is a perfectly legitimate response to this type of criminal. It's also perfectly acceptable to join together with others, voluntarily, for defense- as long as there's no penalty for opting out and the defense is not funded through theft. 

Here's one of the best parts: not everyone has to agree. But those who don't agree to refrain from violating life, liberty, or property- using any justification- will know they are doing something the rest of us recognize they have no right to do, and that their targets have the right to fight back with whatever amount of force it takes. They are just like the freelance criminals of the government era. "Force" isn't the problem; "initiation of force" is. Establishing a government is an initiation of force; fighting back is defensive force.

The best thing about libertarianism, and by extension, anarchy, is that it doesn't rely on "everyone" agreeing. The bad guys have been told how we will respond if they try to violate us. It's their choice to either live in peace or try to cheat to get their way. Without a strong government protecting them from their victims, the ones who don't learn to get along will Darwinize themselves out of the gene pool. Their choice; their consequences.

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What do you think? Value for value? 

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