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Comment by ths | Hacker News Reader

> Without the state, corporations (and capitalism) are not possible.

A state is not necessary for enforcing contracts - that could be done by private parties, as in anarcho-capitalism. Also: Cooperatives can exist within a capitalist system, but the converse is not true. So I guess it comes down to whether or not all property as defined by the status quo should be redistributed or reallocated, presumably by force; if that were not the case, there wouldn't really be any disagreement between left-anarchists and anarcho-capitalists, right?

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Anarcho-capitalism is ahistoric, silly, degenerate, and impossible.

Even Murry Rothbard doesn't think that anarcho-capitalists are anarchists: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard167.html

and http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/rothbard-we-must-therefo...

DROs and private property are effectively a state, don't kid yourself.

> Anarcho-capitalism is ahistoric, silly, degenerate, and impossible.

So is anarcho-anything.

Judging by your profile and blog you seem to be politically interested enough to be able to motivate that comment.

Or I'm I just a victim of your "Trolling hard on HN" bullet-point?

I know you're trolling, but for the benefit of everyone else, anarchism actually existed in real-world Catalonia, the Ukraine, and arguably in Paris, in the real world, for multiple years. You are factually incorrect.

Sure, and the an-caps point to Medieval Iceland.

I don't have a ton of interest in repeating left-anarchist/anarcho-capitalist arguments with you though. It's clear you have the left-anarchist bullet points down.

I chalk up my anarchist period to indiscretions of youth. Nowadays I am more concerned about choice and innovation in government than in abolishing government.

I should have been clearer: I'm not advocating anarcho-capitalism, just having an academic discussion. My point was that a state isn't necessary to enforce contracts, although the competing entities that would theoretically replace the state are quite state-like in many ways as you point out. The Icelandic Commonwealth was anarcho-capitalistic though, wasn't it (anarchy + property rights)? Worked okay for a few hundred years.

I do see your point that anarcho-capitalism isn't really anarchism, though. The societies they envision are radically different.

Fair enough. Sorry, dealing with an endless stream of ancaps who demand that yes, they are 'the real' anarchists and yes, their vision of the future would lead to grand utopia.

> The Icelandic Commonwealth was anarcho-capitalistic though, wasn't it (anarchy + property rights)? Worked okay for a few hundred years.

I do know that Iceland is discussed in these circles, and I only know that both sides go "yes it is no it isn't." I haven't studied it enough to make my own call. Primarily, as far as I'm concerned, if it takes a state form, it's just as bad, so I haven't spent any time in this area."

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