[roenxi]

> Do you think that it costs the government more to...

These are trick questions, it costs the same amount. The cost to arrest a criminal is the same no matter who they are robbing. Ditto the fire & police protection - those emergency services protect lives that are equally valuable.

And it is obviously cheaper if wealthy people take on private protection - they already pay the vast bulk of government services which are mostly rich -> poor transfer payments. If it were a reasonable option, the billionaires of a country would take their own private army over a government funded one. It would cost them half as much as the taxes they pay if they live in the US (because transfer payments make up around half of US government spending).

[ClumsyPilot]

"If it were a reasonable option, the billionaires of a country would take their own private army over a government funded one"

We already ran this experiment, it was called Feudalism. We don't have Barons and Lords because they got obliterated by unified nation states in wars, every time.

There are people who'd give their life for America/Freedom/ etc, have you ever met anyone who would for Mark Zukerberg?

Under current system police enjoys mahor privilidges - qualified immunity, resisting arrest is a crime, etc. Since such multiple private army/police's might come into conflict, those privilidges have to go. We'll be back at feudal warfare

[roenxi]

> We don't have Barons and Lords because they got obliterated by unified nation states in wars, every time.

Arguably the most militarily successful empire in history [0] has Barons and Lords and is nearly contemporary with this conversation (Elizabeth II isn't even dead yet). I agree democracy is better, but "we're better organised and we'll whack you if you don't pay protection money" is a weak justification for taxes. The counterargument is that bullying is a decent tactic but a bad strategy - it is hard to get people to seriously buy in to bullying and relatively unstable when the situation changes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

[ClumsyPilot]

I don't think British Empire is considered feudal society, the English civil war probably marks the end of anything you could call feudalism.

The argument is diffetent - feudalism gives you multiple warring rackets, its even worse and more expensive

[adrianN]

If there is something of higher value to steal, thieves are willing to take larger risks to get it, so you have to expend more effort if you want to prevent that.

[pnut]

Plus supervillains. They're notoriously expensive to arrest.