23A037 Policing a Free Society by Jim Davies, 9/12/2023

A free or zero-government society (ZGS) will come about only after everyone has resolved not to work for government. The QuitGov site will help that to happen, but the main driver is education, such as TOLFA offers; for a radical change of world-view is prerequisite.

The very process of gaining that new understanding of which way is up will mean that every student gains a strong moral foundation for life. That in turn means that in the coming ZGS, there will be a whole lot less crime; and hence, the need for any kind of police will be far less.

Compounding that with the absence of laws means actions that "crimes" without victims will in any case not require "police" attention. Accordingly any "police force" will be a tiny fraction of today's huge US total of 800,000 in "law enforcement."

Such as remain will not be called "police" (hence the quote signs) or, still less, "Law Enforcement Officers" or LEOs. Whereas cops used to be called policemen with the connotation that they had something to do with keeping the peace, they are now known - more accurately - as LEOs. Their job is to enforce government laws. And since the ZGS will have no laws, there won't be any LEOs at all.

It's too much to hope that in the ZGS there will be no krime at all (with a K because we're talking only of actions that damage a real person) so there will be a market demand for some number of detectives, to handle cases in which the aggressor fails to appear and 'fess up and admit responsibility. They will be hired by anyone who wants to trace a person who did them harm. The same justice market will feature demand and supply for courts, judges, disposition companies (to ensure verdicts are carried out) and (of course!) lawyers - though they will be called Advocates, since there will not, again, be any laws. These will all compete for business, and will comprise the justice industry, though I doubt it will be very big - again, a very small fraction of the current monopoly.

That will be complemented by an insurance industry, which will compete for business from plaintiffs who prefer a quick settlement to a full one. Many of those will have bought insurance policies, to provide immediate compensation for harm suffered, after which the insurer will pursue the aggressor through free-market courts and recover from him whatever the court awards; they will set premiums so as to clear a profit, naturally.

Other offerings will do the same, but without the prior sale of a policy; the revenues will come from the court awards alone, so payouts to plaintiffs will be somewhat lower. As always in the ZGS, the market will clear.

One common feature of today's government monopoly is prisons; and in the ZGS there will be none. None, that is, that resemble the awful warehouses of humanity in which breakers of law are caged. Why so?- because today's prisons do nothing for the perp (except to provide him with a post-graduate course in crime) or for the victim, while penalizing an uninvolved third party - the taxpayer - to pay the bill. The system is an ancient but irrational disaster.

So prisons will vanish, for want of market demand; nobody will volunteer to pay for them. A very few aggressors (repeaters of violent krime for example) may be confined under court order - the "disposition companies" above will handle this - but at their own expense. They will be enabled to earn their own keep. Any who decline that opportunity will starve.

Any aggressor, whether he has or has not been sued already, will in the ZGS always be at risk from any member of society who feels threatened, for everyone will be free to carry firearms and to use them in self-defense.

All participants in the justice industry will work for profit and with competition, and no more efficient arrangement has yet been discovered. All told, in the ZGS a life of krime - the violation of others' right of self ownership - will not pay. And nary a cop will be needed.