David Friedman on How to Privatize Everything

"Producing laws is not an easier problem than producing cars or food," says David Friedman, author, philosopher, and professor at Santa Clara University. "So if the government's incompetent to produce cars or food, why do you expect it to do a good job producing the legal system within which you are then going to produce the cars and the food?"

Friedman sat down to talk with Reason TV at Libertopia 2012 in San Diego. Friedman reflected on the impact of his landmark book, The Machinery of Freedom, discussed the differences between libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism and revealed what his father, economist Milton Friedman, thought of his anarchist leanings.

Approximately 7 minutes. Interview by Paul Feine. Camera by Alex Manning and Zach Weissmueller. Edited by Weissmueller.

[MovieRiotHD]

If they would ever make a movie about David Friedman, Danny DeVito should play him

[AnonVoluntaryist]

Private security companies have been hired by middle, and lower class neighborhoods in Detroit in the absence of city police services, and it has worked out quite well for them. This is proof that even poor communities can pool enough funds to hire a few security guards to patrol their neighborhood.

[gebatron]

If only he had inherited his father's voice

[AnonVoluntaryist]

Insurance companies don't like paying out claims so if a fire is threatening a structure they insure then you can bet they'll pay to have the fire put out even if it's on uninsured property. Volunteer fire departments have also proven successful in towns, and cities where the local government underfunds, or doesn't fund a fire department.

[AnonVoluntaryist]

Because small governments never stay that way. We tried minarchism. Look where it got us. America started with the most limited government in human history, and over the course of only a couple of centuries it has grown into one of the most destructive, and overbearing states on the planet. Simply pressing the reset button will only result in the same mistakes being repeated.

[slid_snoks]

Ancap is merely consistent libertarianism.

[Dragan_xo]

David Friedman looks like my jewish grandmother

[Samsgarden]

"Anarcho-capitalist regime".  That's an oxymoron Paul.

[dradney]

Privatization as a successful solution requires two things people aren't talking about. Educated consumers and business built on doing good, not just making money. With the current undereducated population and companies bent on profits at any cost, privatization is leading to far inflated costs, underperfoming insitutions, and the citizens are paying the price. Certain things in a MODERN society should never be privatized.

[johnc]

I'm a minarchist libertarian. I don't so much believe government is incompetent in many aspects of society and the economy, so much as I simply don't believe much of this is the legitimate role of government. I believe the only legitimate role of government is to protect the people's rights to their own person and property through law enforcement, a justice system, and a military. Everything else should be left to the people to decide for themselves as they see fit. The one contradiction I have in my view is that I don't believe government should be stealing from some to give to others in other cases, but that is still what government is doing with respect to law enforcement, a justice system, and a military. I see this as a necessary evil, but I am willing to go further and try anarcho-capitalist ideas of also privatizing these three roles. For now, though, I don't see it as entirely realistic that privatization could be an adequate substitute to government in these three roles. For now, my view is that the federal budget should be decreased by around 87% and then experimentation with privatizing these three other roles ma finish that off, but this still leaves a safeguard in case privatization of these roles does prove inadequate.

[FreeThoughtDIY]

not everything has to be paid for in an anarcho-capitalist society. there is NOTHING prohibiting voluntary security, militias, etc. as well as ones that work for donations or are completely free of charge. that's the beauty of free market anarchism - it gives you as many choices as you can possibly conceive and as long as you aren't forcing anyone to do something, then there's nothing wrong with it.

[indigocolossus]

The trolls are hating on this video hard...he must be on to something.

[TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

This is a horrible kind of place, a place where no one would really want to live, just because you may never use a hospital, you wouldn't want to pay for it. Man, this is a really horrible kind of society, a dog-eat-dog egotistical ugly place. How do you solve the problem of public goods? How do you pay for the army, voluntary contributions?

[Joe_OSRS]

Great video, amazing economist. I wish Reason covered more of Anarcho-Capitalism.

[TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

That is what I believe and I have ample evidence for it. Wherever neoliberals have taken power, whether it was Chile, the US, or the UK, the working man has been stripped of his dignity, the rich have gotten obscenely richer and democracy has been undermined where there is not a developed robust civil society (Pinochet).

[CDeruiter]

As someone who is still on the fence regarding philosophy, and who hasn't read Machinery of Freedom, I have a question: How would markets guarantee that a feud system wouldn't develop?

[Dub]

He doesn't want to break up America into any nation-states. He wants no nation states.

[Giannhs_Kwnstantellos]

The amount of not rich, sophisticated, anticapitalists (or sceptic about capitalism), who turn into anarcho-libertarians following their own reason, is a metric of the real progress that takes place in people's minds

[TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine, " and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. A nice Rousseau quote. It will become a sad sad world where everything has been turned into a commodity to be bought and sold. All in the name of progress, and economic growth that comes at the expense of our ecosystem for instance. A miserable world with no democracy, the only thing you'll be able to do is 'not buy a product'.

[garrettlees]

Another Friedman?! Version 2-point-0?! Hmph, I never knew. Awesome! Thanks, ReasonTV!