Bitark’s Column
In discussions between libertarians and statists, the question “Who will build the roads under ancap?” comes up almost every time. There are many possible answers to this, but I have not encountered a beautiful, universal solution for the problem of providing public goods in a stateless society. At least not until yesterday, when in a stream by the “Antigovernment” community, Savva Shanaev introduced an idea by Alex Tabarrok that is little known in Russia: “Dominant Assurance Contracts”.
Public goods include a wide variety of benefits that anyone can use regardless of whether they paid for them or not — roads, bridges, street lighting, storm sewers, lighthouses, protective dams, herd immunity resulting from universal vaccination, law enforcement, strategic deterrence, waste recycling, sewage treatment, public parks, and much more. The main problem with their provision is the free-rider effect. When it is impossible to charge for the use of public goods, no one will simply pay for them, viewing them as a “given” or hoping that someone else will pay.
The stationary bandit (the state) constantly exploits this to prove its necessity. State propaganda claims that only the state can build roads and bridges, and therefore a territorial monopoly and taxation are needed to fund them.
However, there is a simple and clear way to provide public goods in a completely free market. It has already been implemented on the well-known platform Kickstarter, and without the state, it will be used far more often than it is now. The principle of its operation is roughly as follows.
For example, residents of a neighborhood are tired of breaking their legs and damaging their cars in potholes on the road. An activist contacts a road paving company and gets an estimate. Then, they go to a crowdfunding platform and create a fundraising campaign, specifying the required amount and the deadline for collection. They send letters to the neighborhood residents asking for any possible assistance in funding the road repair and provide a link to the crowdfunding campaign. Anyone can go there and see how much money has been contributed so far, how much more is needed, and when the collection ends. If the required amount is collected by the deadline, the campaign is considered successful, and the road repair company receives the order. If the full amount cannot be collected by the specified date, the money is returned in full to the residents. It is their choice; it means they truly do not need the road repair, and it is absolutely unethical to rob the population of the entire country through taxes to repair their road. Those who cannot stand living without a road move to neighborhoods with a more demanding population, and over time, a natural separation occurs based on the level of demand for infrastructure quality.
