[ue_]

Would other barriers to competition not take root, along with the corresponding inhumanity that is only held off by barriers at the moment? For example, the use of private police forces to defend private property (as far as I'm aware, whether IP is property or not for example is subject to disagreement within the libertarian sphere) and prevalence of sweatshop labour.

[clarkmoody]

> inhumanity that is only held off by barriers at the moment

You mean the way that a voting majority can use the power of the state to punish others they disagree with?

> prevalence of sweatshop labour

The only reason we don't have sweatshops is because of our level of prosperity, not because of government action. If you outlawed sweatshops in developing countries, for instance, many children would starve or be forced into much worse lines of work.

[vkou]

Why do they have to starve? Do sweatshops grow food? There's certainly no shortage of it.

What portion of the value of their labour is captured by them, and what portion of it is captured by the sweatshop owner?

How many of these starving children had families that were removed from their land by various forms of rent-seekers (Or were used as generations of sharecroppers by said rent-seekers)?

[gozur88]

It's not really necessary to debate the merits of Objectivism to make the observation CEOs of the largest American corporations aren't, as a group, big fans of Rand.