The machinery of freedom
by David D. Friedman · first published 1973
63% recommend36% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Pragmatic, consequentialist case for anarcho-capitalism with worked examples of how private law, police, defense and dispute resolution could work; suits skeptics who want a concrete vision of a stateless society.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…there is no marketplace. Even the more extreme libertarians will generally agree that it is necessary for government to have police powers, partly to ensure that property rights are respected. No. Read Machinery of Freedom by Friedman for a primer on why this is not necessary.
on “Libertarian Party of Colorado First to Officially Support Ending IP” ↗Better is arguable, but I really do recommend The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machinery_of_Freedom) for an alternative. It's well thought out and very detailed.
on “Let's Give Up On The Constitution” ↗The Machinery of Freedom (David Friedman) -- Great book on a potential anarcho-capitalist society and how we could push the US government in that direction. The Game (Neil Strauss) -- See nopassrecover's response; he explained…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗David Friedman's The Machinery Of Freedom goes into detail about these kinds of scenarios. There is far too much there to summarize here. The one point I will make is that, when people imagine anarchy, they imagine the society we have now, and…
on “Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun (1943)” ↗…more functions and people come to think of them as having to be done by governments, even if they could be done better by private entities. That's why I have several times referenced David Friedman's The Machinery Of Freedom, which is a serious attempt to undertake this task of imagination in some detail. It's not something that can be done within the scope of a HN comment.
on “Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun (1943)” ↗Yeah. Read The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman for more on that sort of law.
on “Hundreds of people prosecuted for practicing "interior design" without a license.” ↗…more about the system collapsing into a centralized system, which become a big vector for corruption. If you want the definte work on how a free market society might work, you might want to read the Machinery of Freedom, written by David Friedman. However, I know no such works dealing only with organizing a society's incentive and disincentive structure to deal with corruption.
on “How Rich Countries Die” ↗…the son of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, and the father of Patri Friedman (former Google engineer, now director of the Peter Thiel-funded Seasteading Institute: http://seasteading.org/). His book The Machinery of Freedom has a lot more about law without government, both historically and speculatively: http://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Freedom-Guide-Radical-Capita... His weblog is pretty good reading for HN fans too: http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
on “Medieval Iceland and the Absence of Government” ↗…They believe society would function better if laws were provided in a market and consumers had choices of law providers. They may be wrong, but the position is not a priori laughable. Have you read "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman or other pieces of anarcho-capitalist literature? If not, then what gives you the right to dismiss it so easily?
on “Designing For Jedi” ↗…good books: Nozick's Anarchy State and Utopia lays out a framework, he makes some deductions that result in a monarchist state -- but that is in no way guaranteed from his premises. David Friedman's Machinery of Freedom addresses this: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freed... More on private defense agencies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_defense_agency Here's Rothbard on self-defense…
on “The freedom to drink coffee” ↗I would recommend a non-fiction book "The Machinery Of Freedom" by David D. Friedman, it depicts and discusses how a society could function without a government.
on “Snowden granted 1-year asylum in Russia, leaves airport” ↗…allowed to raise the price"? Then this contract can be enforced by whichever private court and protection agency I hired (how this would work is a matter of a separate post, but I recommend reading "The Machinery Of Freedom" by David D. Friedman on that subject). However, I don't really think you'd need that contract. What would really happen is that many companies would have infrastructure in many places (as is the case…
on “Net neutrality” ↗…State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by Leszek…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗…removing the government (or hierarchical use of violence) would remove violence from the world. There are plenty of ideas on how to keep law and order in an anarchic society. I recommend you to read The Machinery of Freedom (by David Friedman) or check out a summary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYkdEU_B4o TLDR: One way to keep order is having private law enforcement / private insurance you voluntarily subscribe…
on “Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)” ↗A book that made the idea of a lack of government believable and appealing to me is David Friedman's Machinery of Freedom. He presents a flushed out vision of a withered state and it is the anarcho-capitalist version of anarchy, the only version which I feel is realizable without force-based coercion. The idea is to envision…
on “Pëtr Kropotkin and Mutual Aid” ↗