Predictably, if one can only appeal to the state for justice, justice will be perverted in favor of the state. Instead of resolving conflict, a monopolist of ultimate decision-making will provoke conflict in order to settle it to his own advantage. Worse, while the quality of justice will fall under monopolistic auspices, its price will rise. Motivated like everyone else by self-interest but equipped with the power to tax, the state agents’ goal is always the same: to maximize income and minimize productive effort.” – Hans-Hermann Hoppe

We’ve come to trust the state to keep us safe, be fair to us, and dispense justice when necessary. In fact, not merely trust, but most people have come to think that only a government can provide justice; and more so, that it is one of the few proper functions of a government. Reality shows us this is a dangerous idea though. In the quote above Hoppe makes the point that when we have a monopolist providing services such as law and justice, we in fact see very bad outcomes. We can see the specific results in the real world today: police abuses, a corrupt legal system, a horrendous prison system, needless and overbearing laws, and cracking down on those the state feels threatened by, such as whistleblowers. In general we can surmise that they “provide services”, but that they demand our money at the point of a gun to do so, and will always rule in their own favor, in one way or another.

Hoppe’s quote was excerpted from the following article: The Paradox of Imperialism

See some of Hoppe’s other work below:

The Economics and Ethics of Private Property

The Myth of National Defense

Democracy: The God That Failed – Read the Introduction Here.

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