Machiavelli and State Power by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The State is deadly and uncaring interlocutor....

For example, people oppose monopoly because they fear the increase in prices, the decrease in product quality, and the centralization of power that accompany it.

The libertarian applies this concern for monopoly to the State itself. After all, private firms, which we are supposed to fear, can’t simply charge whatever they want for their goods or services. Consumers can simply switch from one supplier to another, or from a particular product to a close substitute. Firms cannot engage in quality deterioration without likewise losing customers, who can find competitors offering better products.

But the State may, by definition, charge the public whatever it likes for the so-called services it supplies. Its subjects must accept whatever level of quality the State should deign to provide. And there can never, by definition, be any competitor to the State, since the State is defined as the territorial monopolist of compulsion and coercion.

With its wars, its genocides, and its totalitarian atrocities, the State has proven itself by far the most lethal institution in history. Its lesser crimes include the debt crises it has caused, the self-perpetuating bureaucracies that feed off the productive population, and the squandering of resources – which might otherwise have improved the general standard of living through capital formation – on arbitrary and politically motivated projects.

It amazes me that so many folks believe that the State can deliver a better product, know how to actually deliver it and even know what is needed. Its honestly juvenile. In the real world, those that do not deliver a good product at a fair price go out of business. When government does not deliver a good product at a fair price, they demand and get more funding. Its honestly stupid.

Machiavelli and State Power by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.