Black Markets, Private Ownership, and the Case Against State Monopolies

When I talk about "black markets," I’m not referring to sinister underworlds of human trafficking. I mean something far simpler: markets run by private individuals and small family units—organic, grassroots systems where people exchange goods and services outside the state's economy.

These are the kinds of markets I’m interested in, not the dark caricatures often conjured up by the term because of the state's indoctrination. Let me be clear: supporting private ownership and free markets doesn’t mean I’m against law and order. Far from it. What I reject is the idea that the state should have a monopoly over institutions like the police—funding them through taxes forcibly extracted from individuals, only to turn around and wield those forces to enforce the state’s agenda against the very people footing the bill. It’s a rigged game. Worse, the state doubles down by enacting anti-competition laws that make it illegal for anyone to challenge its authority. This isn’t law and order; it’s a power grab dressed up as governance.

Think about it: by locking out private alternatives, the state creates a monopoly that lets it operate with near impunity. There’s no accountability, no real consequence for overreach—its position is too secure. Look at counties across the United States as a prime example. They hold ironclad control over police departments, fire services, and public transportation. They do whatever they want with private citizens, all while funding these systems with money stolen from those same citizens through taxation. It’s not just inefficient; it’s unjust. All of these services—police, fire, transit—should be privatized.

Here’s why: law and order should be a service funded directly by private citizens who need it, not a tool wielded by a mob of bandits we call the state. When police departments rely on tax dollars siphoned from citizens’ earnings, their loyalty shifts to the state’s interests—often at the expense of the private citizens they’re supposed to serve. But if private citizens paid for policing themselves, the dynamic would flip. The police would answer to the citizens, not to a corrupt, wasteful, and often malevolent entity like the state.
Imagine a system where your security isn’t dictated by a distant bureaucracy but by your own choices and resources. That’s not chaos—it’s accountability. The state’s monopoly doesn’t protect us; it protects itself. Privatizing these services wouldn’t dismantle law and order; it would realign it with the citizens it’s meant to serve. Anything less is just theft masquerading as governance.