160 - David Friedman: What is Anarcho-Capitalism?

David Friedman is Professor Emeritus at the Santa Clara University School of Law. While he was trained as a physicist, David is best known for his work in economics, and particularly his defense of anarcho-capitalism, a political philosophy that advocates for a free-market system unhampered by government. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some criticisms of current economic systems, the varieties of anarchism, David’s arguments for anarcho-capitalism, and one of his fascinating hobbies, anachronism. David’s Website: http://www.daviddfriedman.com David’s Substack: https://daviddfriedman.substack.com The Machinery of Freedom: https://a.co/d/iKpTQYK OUTLINE 00:00 In This Episode… 00:17 Introduction 02:55 Physics to Economics 09:35 What is Anarchism? 16:09 Is Government an Agency of Legitimized Coercion? 27:41 Could Anarchy Be More Efficient than Government? 37:52 What Are Moral Facts? 44:46 Was John Rawls a Quack? 48:44 What Are Moral Facts? 56:07 How Much Should We Trust the Government? 01:02:05 Can Governments Prevent Climate Change? 01:13:18 Could We Privatize Police? 01:30:11 Would Anarchy Lead to Wealth Inequality? 01:40:08 Will the United States Ever Become Anarchic? 01:46:26 Anachronism Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.