Agorism: freedom now, freedom in our time
Political, Law, Economics ·Saturday July 31, 2010 @ 16:01 EDT (link)
Perhaps an underground agorist economy would work to get out from under the oppression of the state. While not underground, Craigslist is an example of a massive trading system where—so far—the state does not infringe on individual rights (but give them time).
To escape taxes on the sale of a house, for instance, instead of selling it "normally", transfer the money and everything but let the seller keep the "public" title and sign a private contract that the buyer has full rights to the house and will pay all property taxes etc. Some sort of system of underground courts might be necessary to resolve disputes. There would be parallels to, say, religious courts, except these would be hidden. And of course, barter and forms of private money may increase too.
Each trader have to start small: trust would be hard to come by until a reputation was established (just like on sites like eBay or GunBroker), and the violence of the occupying forces (police, courts, etc.) would be on the side of the seller if a dispute was brought before the state. True, the underground courts would not (may not) have the power of violence, but if someone has an excellent reputation in the community they will not want to lose it and be cut off if they renege. Or people might sign something like Schulman's General Submission to Arbitration. Plus, there will still be a private contract between parties, although US courts may not enforce it. Long-term leases or rentals might be another workable alternative. The free market can come up with infinite solutions. If an underground electronic currency was used, then the underground courts could have some power over it (delegated to them by the participants).
(Eventually the public rolls would be completely out of sync, but nobody would care. I suppose they'd make laws and let police go around and check who lived at each house… door to door Gestapo—a bit like they already do to ensure kids aren't lying about their address to get into a better school district: see John Stossel's documentary Stupid in America for footage.)
Technology would be a great boost to an underground economy. Technology can help the little guy more than the state—like in Iraq.
Books finished: Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.
