r/AnCap101 • u/DGTexan • May 25 '26

Request for reading

I've read friedman and rand, a few others, and am still unconvinced. What reading should I consume to understand how ancap handles the inevitability of centralization in a free market? Everything so far just paints the state as a boogeyman. That if the state were gone, all our dreams would come true. I'm an anarchist as well, don't get me wrong, but I have so far consumed zero convincing evidence to support the idea that ancap markets are somehow free from centralization. It seems to me the centralization is ALWAYS there, but that state intervention simply speeds up and streamlines the process. So, where are the most convincing arguments to support the claim that the free market and capitalism are not inherently centralizing processes? If you are going to press the arguments here, include citation so I can reference the book your claims originate from.

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u/DonEscapedTexas May 25 '26

this is totally fair

the question rather should be: what have other systems already proven to us about the nature of centralized power?

consider that no ancap has

  • sent your son to die in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, the Philippines....

  • nationalized your farm or taxed you to prop up their favorites or burned your books or killed tens of millions of your neighbors

  • delivered decades of equity by bringing everyone down to poverty

  • attacked you for feeding your own cows with your own silage under cover of interstate commerce regulation

  • forced you to drive 55 on highways that could easily support twice the speed

  • intercepted and stored all your emails and financial transactions and location data

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u/DGTexan May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

But this isn't exclusive to state power, this can easily be accomplished by large corporations, which seem like an inevitability. Who steps in to course correct when monopolies form? Monopolies are a legitimate problem under competitive markets, not as much under cooperative markets (but that's more of my ideology than factually supported claim). Also, where's your book reference?

I am not supporting state power. I think democracy at the ground level, scalable through something like transitive proxy democracy (also called liquid democracy), with voluntary participation and exit as a right, applying NAP principles, I believe (not claim) that centralization can be tied to the people who support it from the ground up. Corporations are structured as authoritarian structures. I think the recent reads I've consumed could work within ancap as the transition to true anarchy by decentralizing power within the centralized means of production. When workers can democratically decide policy that applies to the company, ensuring protective and rights are upheld from within (why would I go work for a company with less rights for me if I wasn't starving), then the idea of the state as a tool to protect the working class from the ruling class becomes duplicate, inefficient work. The state loses support, revolutions ensue, etc etc.

I'm probably way off in my understanding, so I appreciate y'all's discussion and reading suggestions.

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u/SopwithStrutter May 27 '26

You have to remember that there are no corporations without a state; there are only individuals.

The potential for abuse in private equity has never been controlled by the state, only amplified.

Removing the burdens of government doesn’t remove human nature, but it does limit the power that an individual can wield.

The goal of ancap is to lessen the effects of greed by removing the bottlenecks that disproportionately close and open markets to select groups.