I'm willing to wager that we wouldn't be too much worse off with a different system.
Are you willing to bet your life?
If our government actually helped the public, actually had a legal system that worked justly and fairly, and actually did Good, I'd shun the amorality of the free market. But it doesn't, so I can't.
For one thing, any government is amoral at best. Laws are only approximations.
For another thing, the US government and the governments of the states I've been able to visit do help the public. They are not perfect. The problem with anything approaching anarchy, or even some sort of pure free market utopia, is that those things are not yet politically stable in the current context. Regardless of how good or bad life in one would be, a nation state or some other large polity will come over and destroy such an entity. Perhaps technology will level the playing field somehow.
Is the legal system perfect? No, but I'll take my chances in Houston over Mogadishu any day. And the extent to which the government tries to prevent the spread of certain communicable diseases, dissuade people from stealing from and raping strangers, maintain infrastructure, I would say they do help people in these ways and myriad others. Granted, they do this rather imperfectly. That's just real life.
Again, please don't interpret what I've said as "Hey, fuck governments, let's all place our safety in the hands of the free market!"
I merely mean to point out that the idea that governments are the solely-enabled providers of the Good is being threatened by the advent of enabling technologies and poor precedent set by governments themselves.
Are you willing to bet your life?
If our government actually helped the public, actually had a legal system that worked justly and fairly, and actually did Good, I'd shun the amorality of the free market. But it doesn't, so I can't.
For one thing, any government is amoral at best. Laws are only approximations.
For another thing, the US government and the governments of the states I've been able to visit do help the public. They are not perfect. The problem with anything approaching anarchy, or even some sort of pure free market utopia, is that those things are not yet politically stable in the current context. Regardless of how good or bad life in one would be, a nation state or some other large polity will come over and destroy such an entity. Perhaps technology will level the playing field somehow.
Is the legal system perfect? No, but I'll take my chances in Houston over Mogadishu any day. And the extent to which the government tries to prevent the spread of certain communicable diseases, dissuade people from stealing from and raping strangers, maintain infrastructure, I would say they do help people in these ways and myriad others. Granted, they do this rather imperfectly. That's just real life.