A Dilemma for Anarcho-Capitalists

too many men too many many men

The night before last friend-of-the-blog

Charles Amos

invited me out to dinner with economist

David Friedman

and three other students. The food was good, Friedman was nice, and the dinner began in a funny way: prior to, Friedman had been giving a talk on anarcho-capitalism to the Oxford Mises Society, after which — contrary to the plans of the organisers — a notorious Big Name on Campus from Chabad Society temporarily stole Friedman away, after pulling his wallet out and threatening to bid for the economist. I couldn’t make the talk, and I don’t know what happened in between, but the aforementioned rascal eventually brought Friedman back to the restaurant where dinner was scheduled, dropped him off, apologised for stealing the speaker and bringing him back late, and then asked the organisers not to ban him from the Mises Society, who replied that it technically wasn’t up to them.

When Friedman left, I finished his bucket of chips.

Afterwards, when desserts were being ordered, the leftover libertarians (+me) started talking about how anarcho-capitalism might or might not work, and someone — can’t remember who — mentioned that the boy:girl ratio for Mises society talk was ‘the usual’.

‘So mostly women?’, I joked.

Then it struck me that the fact — and I gather it is a fact — that the people most enthusiastic about Murray Rothbard and private protection agencies are almost entirely men of a certain sort puts anarcho-capitalist schemes in a certain sort of bind.