Anarchists Versus Libertarians

        "Donald Trump will be a tyrant!"

        So my neighbors claim. I live in Manhattan. Feel for me.

        Yes, Trump says wild things, like riffing about "terminating" parts of the
U.S. Constitution.

        But I don't think he means it. As Joe Rogan said to Trump when candidate
Trump came on his show, "You say a lot of wild s---!"

        In any case, podcaster Michael Malice, in my new video, says not to worry,
"We have so much further to go before we're lost as a country."

        Malice knows the damage real tyrants do. He's spent time in North Korea,
and he was born in the Soviet Union. He detests political "leaders," saying
the best political system is anarchism: self-government without a central
authority, or, as the AI on my computer defines it: "a self-managed,
stateless society based on voluntary cooperation and mutual aid."

        Malice and I debate that. I'm no anarchist. I'm a libertarian. I believe
we should be allowed to act as we wish, so long as we don't hurt others. I
accept the need for limited government, one that
adjudicates disputes, enforces pollution control, and funds police and a
military to keep us safe.

        Malice says it's wrong to think that way, because all
central government is a problem.

        "Security is like anything else," he argues. "Should the government be
producing books? ... No. Producing helicopters? ... No ... a government
monopoly makes no sense. But somehow when it comes to security, you're OK
with this. And then you live in New York and wonder why it ends up being
the way it is."

        I'm not convinced that security is "like anything else." A government
monopoly on force at least means that we rarely have different security
forces fighting each other.

        "How about pollution?" I ask, because I don't see how my beloved free
market will effectively address it. "My smoke goes into other people's
lungs. Under anarchy, there's no preventative mechanism that would deter me
from letting that smoke travel."

        "That's an aggression," replies Malice. "You are violating my space. That
would be adjudicated under private arbitration, which would be faster and
more efficient."

        Private lawsuits and arbitration are efficient? Not that I've seen.
        It's hard for everyone who breathes my fumes to sue me.

        "There would be some John Stossels out there who make those polluting cars
or they don't really care. But the point is, all the pressures on cars and
all these other mechanisms are far more a function of people getting
informed and involved than it is the function of government laws."

        He points out that pollution is worst in countries with big governments,
"like China, where under communism ... you drain every bit of resource that
you can. ... people getting cancer, dying, you don't care. Under free
markets, people are more invested and have more of a space to say
something, to clean up the environment."

        "But our air and water were filthy before we had government's pollution
laws," I point out.

        "How did they get cleaned up? Because you had organizations saying
'pollution is bad' ... And these companies did something about it.

Government laws came as a consequence."

        Malice calls anarchism "libertarianism with principles." He also published
"The Anarchist Handbook," featuring essays by thinkers who say that a
society without government could work well.

        I'm skeptical.

        I hate our big intrusive government, hate that it grabs almost half our
money and micromanages our lives. I hate the politicians who act like good
things come from them, rather than from millions of free people pursuing
our own interests. I hate that government constantly grows more intrusive
and takes more of our money (under both Democrat and Republican
administrations).

        But I do think we need some of it.

        Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the
battle between government and freedom. He is the author of "Give Me a
Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the
Scourge of the Liberal Media."

COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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