The more that I study economics, the more that I don’t believe that Capitalism is the right description for the ideal society. It is propertyism. In an anarchist society, capital is just a means for exchange. This means that real wealth is measured by the property, which includes capital. However, Capital does not include property but is a type of property.
Even Ludwig Von Mises understood this, which is why he agreed with the biblical statement of the love of money is the root of all evil.
Meaning, one who is willing to decimate their neighbor’s means of exchange by any means possible, is going to. They are going to manipulate the currency to their goal, regardless of those whom they are going to harm.
Let’s say government collapses tomorrow, and with that, all public services fail. That means that the new form of capitalism is barter for the highest demand items; such as bullets, fuel, tools, food, labor.
This is why an immediate collapse of the government will cause several spawns of warlords. These are the people with the greatest number of weapons, and ammo, regardless of other resources on hand. They are bound to pursue the capture of lands and those with skills of work those lands for renewable resources, such as food, water, power. In this case, power is considered renewable, since a person can be placed before a crank and forced to crank the generator to generate power. This means that the enslavement of men also becomes a form of capital.
Assuming that there is a slow and deliberate closure of the government, there will still be those who will react by trying to form their own totalitarian state. This new generation of royals will pursue the same failures of the prior government. However, if the closure of the federal government is slow and deliberate, then the people will learn to live without the said authoritarian group. This will allow the masses to divide into their own logical groups, pro, and con new totalitarian state. This will inevitably create separation, and even segregation of the people until all are enslaved or the new royals decided to settle for peaceful trade over bloodshed. Even the liberated people will have a trend to form a counter government to defend against the neo-royals. History has proven that when a government is formed, it is only by the blood of tyrants and free men that liberty is restored.
There is a solution. The economist Bob Murphy talks about this regularly. The use of the contract. This is not a social contract, but publicly posted boards and individual contracts. IE: “To enter here, you are agreeing to do all transactions without coercion. You will respect the property and life of others, and will not use coercion against them or their property.”
I have a lot more to learn.
Brian By Experience 