dogbert04Hi there, fellow students (and teachers). I’ve had a hypothetical situation pitched to me by a friend. It stemmed from an earlier discussion on the harmful effects of taxation on an economy; where I remarked that people would have to provide the services that government typically operates should taxation be abolished. The situation involves private property rights in a world absent government provided police and military forces, and goes as follows:
1)Person 1 is a billionaire, and wishes to buy a house from Person 2 (of more modest means).
2)Person 2 is aware of oil on their property, and quotes the price of the home to Person 1 as $10,000,000.
3)Person 1 informs Person 2 that he is only willing to pay $100,000 for the home; the theoretical cost of hiring a private military force to evict the person forcibly from their land.
4)Absent government-funded police/military/law enforcement, what recourse does Person 2 have?
My friend wanted to use this scenario to try and get me to acknowledge that government funded police + law enforcement, etc would be necessary and therefore taxation could be considered legitimate on those grounds. Apologies for the long-winded post, but are there good resources (or do you all have any insights) to answer this friend of mine? Thanks in advance. =)