Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by carbotaniuman 883 days ago
A gun can also force people to participate in transactions they don't want to engage in.
1 comments

Sure, and that can happen whether there is a government or not. In fact, in the US, courts up to and including the Supreme Court have ruled that the government has no affirmative duty to protect individuals from crime.

I don't think laws against crime were the sort of regulation of markets that the post I responded to was talking about. But in any case, if the existence of crime is sufficient to make markets not free, then free markets don't exist with government any more than they would without it.