I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to divinechemicals for engaging in the debate I said nothing about fairness. If I did have to say something about fairness, I'd say it is unfair to force someone to do anything they do not want to or prevent them from acting if they are not harming another. Didn't your mama ever tell you that life isn't fair? We're getting away from the material, but since there aren't any other posts today, I'll go with it. What exactly is your problem with Somalia? It is hard to debate if you aren't specific If a child wants to work, he or she should be allowed. Preventing a child from working and thereby forcing them into a lower standard of living is abusive. If they are forced to work, then that is slavery and obviously not libertarian. Pollution is equivalent to damaging a neighbor's property. If property rights are upheld, then that neighbor would have a right to restitution. Polluters in the late 1800s were actually protected from lawsuits by the government courts. If they had been forced to compensate those they hurt, their actions would have been uneconomical and they would have had to find non-polluting ways to produce their goods. Same argument for child labor goes for worker abuse. How about someone who's labor is worth less than minimum wage? These people are not allowed to work even if they are willing and able. They wind up homeless or in govt programs where they get no productive skills. They don't benefit, and the rest of us don't benefit. If they were allowed to work, they could gain productive skills and work their way up above the "poverty line", enriching themselves and others. Give them a chance. We couldn't agree more  The real question is, are those people going to come together voluntarily and on mutually agreeable terms, or are the going to come together, arm themselves, and then force anyone who disagrees to do what they've decided is best. Cooperation and coordination are some of a human being's greatest assets, but if you have to resort to force to get people's support, then maybe your ideas aren't so great after all? If a single government monopoly is so great, wouldn't we gladly give up our money for their services? Why do they have to hold a gun in one hand as they reach into our earnings to tax them with the other? Silk Road was founded on libertarian principles and continues to be operated on them. It is a great idea and a great practical system. Not everyone here is intelligent. It is not a utopia. It is regulated by market forces, not a central power (even I am subject to market forces by my competition. No one is forced to be here). The same principles that have allowed Silk Road to flourish can and do work anywhere human beings come together. The only difference is that the State is unable to get its thieving murderous mits on it. Efficiency is the booby prize of a free society, and most definitely not a hallmark of central planning. The real prize is freedom itself. Slavery actually was more efficient for tobacco farmers in colonial America, for example. It was efficient in reaching the goals of the tobacco farmers, but not the goals of the slaves. In the same way, a socialist planner might get what he and his constituents want efficiently through the mechanisms of the state, but the people forced to produce what they want are not getting what they want. If they did want the same thing, they would gladly pay for it. As it is they must be taxed. False. State police scare the hell out of me. Who would you trust more, someone who you paid to protect you and who's livelihood depends on your continuing to pay them, or someone who steals from you (taxes), buys guns with the money (FBI, DEA, ATF, Military, local and state police, etc.), and then forces you to do things against your will when you are not hurting anyone else? As soon as it initiates force (taxation, regulation, wars of agression, etc.), because bullies are bad and should be spanked Because your body and wallet are your property while a job is not, that belongs to your employer. Go get another job or make your own.