Quote from: deisik on December 10, 2013, 09:12:04 AM

Quote from: Walter Rothbard on December 09, 2013, 10:49:31 PM

I would like to allow an arbitrary number of governments in my area, but this is illegal. If anyone attempts it, they will face coercion (government force). As someone else mentioned, this should be just as legal as picking a competing ISP.

That's what I mean by compelling people to just have one government. If they try to start another, they will be forcibly put down as a "rebellion." And 99% of the population seems to think that this is good and ethical. But clearly this is the exact opposite of freedom.

Now I see your point. Just couldn't imagine that people would ever want more than one government (as you confirm yourself). Though it's still beyond my understanding how there could possibly be more than one government at the same time in the same area.

All they have to do is just respect each other's rights to life, liberty, and property. Imagine if the Republican and Democratic parties were each governments. Each citizen picks whichever one they want. If you commit a crime against another citizen of your party, your party handles it in the way they deem appropriate. If they commit a crime against a citizen of the other party, it'd be handled by collaboration between governments: extradition, etc. So, if you are Republican and murder a Democrat and the whole world witnessed it on television, the Republicans probably hand you over to the Democrats to face justice. But if you are Democrat and have an abortion, the Democrats don't hand you over to the Republicans, because while the Republicans have outlawed abortion, the Democrats have not.

Now generalize it: instead of two parties/governments, allow any arbitrary number of them. Allow people to create new ones as they see fit.

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If this is not what you actually mean here, aren't elections what would go for "picking a competing ISP"?

No, in elections (as we know them), you are picking the government that other people will be subject to. What we want is for each person to be allowed to pick their own government. Example: when George W. Bush won in 2000, it was immoral to force everybody to be subject to his government; people should've been allowed to be under a competing system run by Gore instead, if that's what they really wanted. (Personally I'd pick neither.)