Pretty much the first thing that any nascent human settlement in the modern world will do is create a local council to organise those things that are best organised collectively. And there are many such things.Woodchopper wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:23 pmI don't buy that argument. All but the most extreme capitalist libertarian accepts the need for governments to enforce things like laws, contracts and property rights. But as mentioned above, ultimately the ability to do that is based upon coercive power. I don't see how a capitalist economy would function with no central authority to prevent theft.
Most places the trend on state spending is upwards. The problem of developed countries is growing a surplus to be able to spend at the kind of level that developed countries spend at. Without it, they are held back. Britain is an exception and recently trimmed back (pre-Covid) the state to below 35% of the national income. So down a bit but hardly an irrelevance. It's over 40% in most of Europe, and up to 50% in several places. So actually most places the state is becoming more relevant. Covid will have increased it.
And how is the major road system being built in this extreme capitalist economy? Even the privately-funded turnpike model of Britain in the industrial revolution required a central government to coordinate it. And it eventually collapsed because so many of the turnpike trusts couldn't afford to upgrade their roads to compete with the new canals and railways, and went bankrupt. The state had to pick up the pieces. Even privately funded telecoms networks need central coordination. And other network utilities.
And what about education and health? Redistribution is actually good for us all. If you make everyone pay for education and health at full cost, then lots of people can't afford it, and you end up with a country with a large penumbra of poor people, such as we saw in 19th century Britain, or modern developing countries. Such a country is not such a nice place to live, especially if you are part of the majority of hordes in poverty. A nation of relatively well-educated and healthy people has a positive effect on the whole economy, by increasing its productivity. And what about controlling plagues?
What about a planning system? Well-planned cities are more productive and efficient. What about controlling environmental pollution?
The truth is that a successful capitalist economy needs considerable coordination, collective investment in infrastructure, and, would you believe, redistribution. Successful capitalist economies do a lot of redistribution.