Article by Colonel Nogov on Aug. 20, 2015
First let’s define crime. There are two and only two crimes. Theft and violence. Violence includes all subcategories such as rape, murder, assault, etc. and credible threats thereof. Theft includes all subcategories such as extortion, fraud, vandalism, etc. Why is this so? Every country has different “laws”. I refer to it only as legislation. Legislation is arbitrary rule making by politicians. The two actual crimes are universal everywhere on the planet. These two crimes have stood the test of time. They are the only two crimes that have been passed down through the ages. They are the two constants. Gods come and go. Man made “laws”(legislation) come and go, but these two never change.
Anything legislators write that does not directly pertain to the two crimes, is not a crime. It’s legislative thievery. A justification to take your money. A justification to manipulate markets so that some are disadvantaged to give advantages to others. Drug possession, failing to register your car, selling cigarettes without a license, refusing to pay taxes, etc., these kinds of things are not crimes. No victim, no crime.
Government crime will be eliminated
Government is a criminal organization that rules and extorts the population in a geographic area. The government commits theft and violence every minute of every day. Most people fail to recognize this on a conscious level. They have the idea that government is somehow an extra ordinary magical entity where the laws of humanity don’t apply. Government consists of men and women, just like you and me. The president of the united states is just a man, the same as you. He has no right to order you to pay taxes, or tell you how to conduct your business, or tell you how to conduct your life.
Taxation is theft. Technically, it would be considered an extortion racket. This is not conjecture. The definitions for taxation and extortion are identical. Simply using a different word to describe the same event does not alter the event. “Taxation is theft” is a true statement whether you choose to believe it or not.
Government also commits violence every minute of every day. Government agents (police) assault and kidnap people on a daily basis and when they’re not actually in the act of committing these crimes, the threat is always there. Yes, some of the people they are assaulting are in response to an actual crime they’ve committed, but more often the police are committing acts of violence against people who have committed no crime, but only disobeyed the arbitrary legislation written by politicians. That is aggression. That is a crime.
And of course, only governments wage war.
In a stateless society, this criminal activity would be completely eliminated. If you’re still under the belief that government is a necessary evil, you are probably more concerned about citizen on citizen crime. Read on.
Black market crime will be eliminated
Operating on a black market in itself isn’t a crime. Government legislation makes it a “crime”. If you don’t fully understand what black markets are, read here. Because government has made certain markets illegal, it’s risky to operate on them. There’s danger from two directions, government agents and rival black marketeers. We know about the government criminality from the last section. Why is there so much violence in black marketeering?
Black marketeers don’t have the same legal recourse as non black marketeers. Black marketeers must still have contracts. There are producers, suppliers, salesmen, just like any business, but because they can’t operate out in the open, their only recourse for contract enforcement is violence. Territory disputes also leads to some violence. I know some of you are thinking right now, “ah ha, you see without government to provide a legal system, every market would be like that.” Wrong. For several reasons.
In a free society there will be competing mediation service providers (court systems). Just like everything else that the government doesn’t control in one way or another, the quality goes up while the cost goes down. Free market mediation service providers will be incentivized to reduce disputes amongst their clients. Ineffective mediation service providers will be abandoned for mediation service providers who fairly mediate disputes and also help their clients avoid disputes. This will lead to many innovative solutions. Possibly even acting as an escrow type agent for two or more parties to a transaction. Also, the abuse of the system, unlike today’s court system, would be reduced or even outright eliminated.
Contract disputes only happen in a small percentage of contracts. Even on the black market. Most people want to avoid conflicts and violence. For a business man conflicts and violence are costly. They would rather have their businesses run smoothly and be drinking pina coladas by the pool.
For a historical example, think back to prohibition in the U.S. When alcohol was made illegal, the black marketeers came in to fill the demand. Making something illegal doesn’t reduce its demand. This lead to a lot of violence. Once prohibition was lifted, the violence stopped. You don’t see alcohol producers shooting each other up today. It’s also rare, if ever, they sue one another.
A short sidetrack here. I often hear people talk about slavery without a government. They talk as if, without government, real live human owning human slavery would be commonplace. Ask yourself this simple question, “Why is slavery today all but non existent?” Because it’s illegal? No. Drugs are illegal. Prostitution is illegal. Gambling is illegal. Yet these markets are vibrant. Why not slavery? Slavery is a crime. It’s both violence and theft. People understand this. This is not something most people want. Only the very sick and deranged ever delve into slavery today, and those occurrences are rare. Drugs, prostitution,and gambling are not crimes, they’ve just been made illegal by governments. Slavery can and only did exist when governments sanctioned it. How do you like your governments now?
The by-products of freedom
Free markets bring prosperity. If you don’t understand that or believe that, you’ve got some studying to do.
Theft and violence goes down as prosperity goes up. This is proven in many statistics, but it should be intuitive. A man who has enough to eat doesn’t go and steal bread. This reduces theft. Many subcategories of theft are both theft and violence.
If a man becomes addicted to drugs, he doesn’t have to hide is addiction to avoid punishment. In this scenario, he may have to resort to theft to feed his addiction. Now, he can seek help out in the open. See Portugal for evidence.
Legal prostitution reduces violent sex crimes. Yes, rape is a crime of violence, but it originates out of a base human desire. If a man is able to pay for sex, he is less likely to cross the line into using violence to satisfy his desires. Using violence to satisfy desires is always a risky proposition. There’s always the possibility of retaliation. Imagine a rapist’s victim during an assault is able to grab ahold of her car keys. She puts one between two fingers and takes her assailant’s eye out. If given the option most will choose the safer alternative of paying for sex if they have the means. Once again, here, free markets increase general prosperity while also increasing quality and lower costs of goods and services.
By the numbers
FBI violent crime statistics:
I originally broke down the numbers in violent thoughts vs. violent action:
[In a single year in the U.S., less than one half of one percent of people are victims of a violent crime. (aggravated assault, robbery, forcible rape, murder) four tenths of one percent to be exact (.4%). In other words it is 99.6% likely you will not be a victim of a violent crime in any given year. Let’s dissect the number even further. Out of the already miniscule .4%, 62% of that is aggravated assault and 29% robbery. Aggravated assault ranges from an attack with injuries to a shove. A robbery can be a gun to the face and a demand all the way down to a purse snatching. Only 8% of the original .4% was forcible rape or murder. That amounts to less than one tenth of one percent likely you’ll be a victim of a forcible rape or murder. So, 99.9% likely not to be victimized. The odds don’t get much better than that. Considering that the victims of the violent crime were victimized by the same perpetrator in many instances. That’s not many people who are capable of committing violent crime.]
Citizen on citizen violent crime is already minimal. In a free society it will fall even farther because private crime prevention is superior to government crime prevention.
If you think it is government in the first place that is keeping crime rates low, think again. Government is horrible at preventing or solving crime. Stolen property recovery by government is around 10%. Murder solving rate is around 60%. If you want to commit murder, you’re 40% likely to get away with it when government is on the case. So it’s not as if government policing is much of a deterrent when it comes to actual crime.
Government has very little incentive to actually do a good job in this area. It has a monopoly. It’s not as if you can fire them. You pay, through taxes, whether or not you want or need their service or their service is good or bad. They have an incentive to do a bad job. When they do a bad job, there is nothing you can do about it. It’s not as if you can change service providers. So the word is reform! Reform. We need more money. Reform. We need more money. Reform. We need more money. And so it goes. Never to improve. Only to cost more. The second incentive to do a bad job is the government needs you to need its services. It wants crime to take place while simultaneously pretending to fight crime. If crime went away or private service contractors became plentiful, you would no longer need the government’s crime prevention service. You may even question the need for government itself.
Private businesses innovate, government does not. How would private crime prevention businesses innovate? I don’t know, but I also didn’t know how a computer went from filling an entire room to now fitting in the palm of my hand, or how a record collection went from filling a room to now fitting entirely on a single iPod. I don’t know HOW innovation will occur, I only know it will.
The free market will innovate in the area of crime prevention to the point that crime becomes nearly non-existent. This is not faith. This is how free markets work. Businesses operating on a free market must innovate to capture market share. They can innovate by improving quality or lowering costs. When a free market competitor innovates, he captures market share. Other market competitors will then try to innovate to recapture market share. It is an ongoing constant improvement of quality and a lowering of cost. All of this competition benefits you, the consumer.
The three biggest sticking points in people’s heads are Schools, roads, and crime prevention. Anarchists always say the free market will provide these things in a stateless society. If that’s true, why isn’t there more privatization in these areas now? Because government has taken over these areas and provides the services for “free”. Obviously, they’re not free, they’re paid for out of the tax roll, but the effect is the same. Private industry cannot compete with a service provider giving their services for free. There are some private schools and some private roads and some private security companies, but government has driven out any real competition and, by default, any real innovation.
When government is abolished the crime rate will drop
1. Crime committed by government: eliminated
2. Crime committed by black marketeers: eliminated
3. The freeing of markets will cause a continual rise in prosperity reducing crime
4. There will be no black markets this reduces crime
5. Private crime prevention business innovations will reduce crime
