Monday, February 12, 2007
Harry Browne on the free society
I got interested in andrew Galambos for some reason this evening (talk about desperate procrastination!) In a piece he wrote about Galambos, Harry Browne had these great words about the eventual free society:
If a totally free society will exist in, say, the year 2020, we have no way of knowing today how property will be protected, how the nation will be defended, how drivers will be charged for using roads, or how any of the thousands of other technical issues will be handled.
If someday there is a profit to be made from providing neighborhood protection or national defense, hundreds of ideas will come gushing forth — as some of the best minds in the world see an opportunity to get rich and to be intellectually challenged by devising the best possible systems.
It is presumptuous of us to think we can somehow foresee all these ideas and know now how these matters will be handled. All we can do is to cite potential ways to take care of them — to reassure people that matters can be handled without resorting to the coercion, inefficiency, and monopoly of political methods. ¶ 9:22 PM
If a totally free society will exist in, say, the year 2020, we have no way of knowing today how property will be protected, how the nation will be defended, how drivers will be charged for using roads, or how any of the thousands of other technical issues will be handled.
If someday there is a profit to be made from providing neighborhood protection or national defense, hundreds of ideas will come gushing forth — as some of the best minds in the world see an opportunity to get rich and to be intellectually challenged by devising the best possible systems.
It is presumptuous of us to think we can somehow foresee all these ideas and know now how these matters will be handled. All we can do is to cite potential ways to take care of them — to reassure people that matters can be handled without resorting to the coercion, inefficiency, and monopoly of political methods. ¶ 9:22 PM
