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Six questions for statist Again,
I, I people often get embroiled 

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in this oh, communism versus 
fascism versus socialism and all

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these different forms of 
statism. 

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But it seems like the problem, 
right the the actual problem, is

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all under the canopy of statism 
itself. 

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So what are these six questions?
Who is the author and what point

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is he driving at in this essay? 
The author is a Canadian 

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philosopher, Stefan Molyneux, 
who sort of became popular on 

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YouTube some years ago. 
And what he's saying is, look, 

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there's a lot of technicalities 
when it comes to debating, you 

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know, things about the state. 
First they tell you to fight 

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about healthcare, then fight 
about agricultural subsidies, 

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then fight about tariffs, then 
fight about the bandarites 

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fighting in Ukraine. 
He goes, let's really get to the

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root of what the disagreement is
between people like himself and 

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our guests and people who 
advocate the existence of a 

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government, he goes. 
Here are the most productive 

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questions you can ask 'cause if 
you've ever been in a 

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conversation with a government 
believer, you know that the 

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conversations can last forever 
and get nowhere. 

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So here is his guide says 
question one, Does government 

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actually solve the problem in 
question? 

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So when people say, well, what 
if there's a dispute? 

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Now I can go to a court. 
In the absence of a government, 

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I couldn't go to a court. 
Well, first of all, there's tons

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of private arbitration 
organizations all around us. 

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There's authorities within 
society. 

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Every, you know, company that 
you work with has some sort of 

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like HR department so that first
of all, there are are 

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alternatives. 
Second, government courts take 

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years to render a verdict. 
There's an extraordinarily high 

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opportunity cost in time and 
monetary cost with finding a 

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lawyer, hiring a lawyer, not 
finding a corrupt 1 cause. 

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The lawyers that I've come 
across, some are either like the

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greatest people ever or the 
absolute scum of the earth. 

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It's extremely risky because you
have to go to law school to get 

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a license. 
Even if you know someone who's 

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brilliant on the law, they can't
argue on your behalf unless the 

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state has granted them a 
protective license. 

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So claiming that, well, courts 
exist, that doesn't mean we have

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a universal protection. 
Leftist will constantly say what

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we should have is universal 
healthcare, as if the divide is 

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between either everyone gets it 
or only some people get it, 

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giving the state a monopoly on 
healthcare. 

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The state has the monopoly on 
education. 

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Is everyone educated. 
The state has a monopoly on on 

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policing. 
Does that mean everyone's 

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private property is always 
protected and no one ever gets 

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murdered? 
Of course not. 

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So governments don't always 
actually solve the problem that 

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people are claiming. 
Best example in America might be

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something like Medicaid, where 
the divide is OK. 

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There's people who can afford 
healthcare and people who can't 

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afford it for those who can't 
afford it. 

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That's who we're worried about. 
Therefore, we're going to give 

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them something called Medicaid. 
And we've seen a drastic 

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increase in healthcare costs 
since the implementation of 

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Medicare and Medicaid under 
Lyndon Johnson, of course. 

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And they never apologize. 
So governments don't actually 

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solve the problems. 
That's the first one. 

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Second, can the criticism of the
anarchic solution be equally 

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applied to the status solution? 
So when people say, well, under 

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a free market, you could have 
people only shopping at one 

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place, and this might lead to a 
monopoly. 

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However, the very existence of a
state is literally a monopoly on

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violence. 
If you try to compete with them 

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by doing whatever they do, issue
taxes, issue tariffs, try to 

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regulate other people, you will 
go to jail because the state is 

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literally a monopoly. 
So if your claim is I'm 

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terrified of the potential of 
monopoly, therefore I'm going to

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advocate a monopoly, you are 
certainly not thinking clearly, 

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and that was Molyneux's point 
there. 

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He said Third, is anarchy 
accepted as a core value in non 

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political spheres? 
So the examples he uses is 

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dating, career choices, 
education and so on. 

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That people will often make 
these decision based on profit, 

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incentive, how much money, how 
much they enjoy it and what 

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other other people can market or
persuade them to do such a 

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thing. 
But they usually rule out 

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initiating force to achieve such
an end. 

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So Molyneux's point is people 
love the anarchy they live but 

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tend to love the non anarchy 
that they just so happened to 

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have gone to school for 12 years
to be told is terrible. 

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Not a coincidence. 4th of the 
6th Molyneux says would the 

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person advocating statism 
perform state functions himself.

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He's saying that if someone 
says, Oh yeah, well it's OK to 

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issue property taxes to fund 
public schools. 

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That's a very abstract statement
and people are used to saying 

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it. 
They probably don't even think 

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about it. 
So his question is to say OK 

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before we talk about them this 
concept the state. 

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I want to talk about you do you 
have the right let's let's look 

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at this house over there. 
You watch the woman come out and

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you say, do you have the right 
to cage that woman If she 

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doesn't give you 3% of whatever 
that state says her house is 

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allegedly worth? 
Do you have the right to cage 

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her and shoot her if she 
resists? 

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Just don't chip in to this 
education program. 

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Does the Catholic Church have 
the right to do this? 

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Because there there are Catholic
schools where people learn a 

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lot. 
There's the Libertarian 

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Institute, which provides a free
education on history, economics 

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and philosophy. 
Does everyone have the right to 

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do this? 
And if it's so justified, why 

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are people so hesitant to do it 
themselves? 

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When it comes to rape, 
kidnapping, slavery, murder, 

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people have no problem saying, 
hell yeah, I would have the 

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right to defend myself or use 
defensive force against someone 

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doing something terrible like 
that. 

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But when it comes to, well, how 
about issuing taxes? 

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And then they go, well, you 
know, we live in a society and 

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society has rules, and then they
get extremely abstract because 

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it's so uncomfortable that they 
have to foam up some 

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rationalization. 
So because we should be very 

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optimistic, because if people 
truly believed that, they'd say 

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yes, I'd have the right to do it
myself. 

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The fact that they get extremely
uncomfortable when talking about

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the implications of what they're
advocating is what Molyneux's 

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talking about. 
He says #5 can something be 

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voluntary and coercive at the 
same time? 

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So many advocates of democracy, 
especially will say monarchy is 

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terrible, you just have someone 
rolling over you. 

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However, democracy is done 
through the consent of the 

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governed. 
This is a clear example of 

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something that people only 
believe because the process of 

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repetition has made them assume 
that it has to be something 

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that's legitimate. 
So since it's based on the 

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consent of the governed, it 
seems like it's not like you're 

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actually not able to opt out of 
funding the IRS or opt out of 

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engaging in these regulations 
and occupational licenses. 

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So if democracy's legitimate 
because it's based on consent 

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and people can't give their 
consent to disassociate with the

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Lindsey Graham's of the world, 
how can you say that the very 

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thing that justifies your 
system, consent of the governed,

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it then necessarily violates by 
definition. 

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That is Molly's fifth point. 
And finally, does political 

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organization change human 
nature. 

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So if you say you know, but so 
Sean Hannity was having a 

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conversation with Penn Jillette 
and Penn Jillette made some 

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pretty good libertarian points 
and and he just says with all 

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the confidence in the world, you
know, those sound like, you know

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sort of utopian ideas. 
I just have more of a dark view 

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of how humans are. 
I think people are bad and can't

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be trusted, as if that justifies
anything that came out of his 

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mouth previously. 
If people are so bad, what 

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species do you want running the 
government? 

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Who's going to run the FDA? 
Is it going to be a bunch of 

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owls and zebras? 
It's going to be people. 

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But hold on one second ago 
people were terrible and greedy 

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and couldn't be trusted, and now
you give them the power to 

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coercively rule. 
It's one thing to say people are

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greedy, and that's why we need a
free market where we can 

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disassociate with bad actors 
because people are greedy. 

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What the Sean Hannity's of the 
world say is people are greedy, 

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and some of them should have the
right to coercively rule over 

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others. 
And all these evil, greedy, lazy

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people should be able to vote 
once every four years to 

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determine who rules over 
everyone else. 

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So whether you think people are 
all good, all bad, some evil, 

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well, that's actually an 
interesting one where you think,

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well, people are mostly good, 
but there are some evil people 

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out there. 
What kind of personality do you 

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think is attracted to? 
Hey, you get to coerce people to

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do things and they don't have a 
right to disobey you. 

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You think it's the average 
person? 

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No, of course not. 
It's the Lindsey Grahams and 

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Anthony Wieners and Kamala 
Harris's of the world, the most 

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psychopathic of them all. 
The average good person wants 

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nothing to do with that. 
So because the existence of a 

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state does not change the very 
human nature which that everyone

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since every political 
philosopher since Thomas Hobbes 

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has used that as a justification
for if there is a state, it's 

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because life would be nasty, 
brutish and short and people are

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really bad. 
Well then we can't have a state 

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because the most evil people 
will be attracted to it. 

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And in the free market there are
evil people but they still can't

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get a penny out of your pocket 
unless you voluntarily give it 

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to them. 
I hear Steve Jobs was like a 

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total jerk, but thank God he 
didn't have some. 

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His security was a private 
security team for Apple, 

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protecting, you know, your 
material through things like 

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passwords. 
So even even the evil people in 

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the free market have an 
incentive to be good people to 

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cooperate with. 
That's why the understanding of 

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human nature and the 
implications are important to 

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understanding economics. 
That's what I love about 

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Molyneux's essay here.