I'm not trying to make a point about military. I'm trying to make a point about self-sufficiency at the state level.
The military may well have reserves, but if they are supplied by Xia, all bets are off once those reserves are depleted.
If Libland does not have the capacity to generate Food during a protracted war then it is vulnerable to external aggression. However, I don't see a way that a Libertarian state can ensure that sufficient Food production capacity is maintained in the presence of cheap Food available on the international market.
And the point is not food either. "Food" is an arbitrary good that people rely on to survive.
If Libland did not have the capacity to generate Food, I would think Liblanders would have unique and unusual ways of being resourceful with Food and its storage, knowing full well that they are dependent on Xia for it. Canning, freeze-drying and other methods of preservation would probably be innovated to an extreme in this massively unrealistic metaphorical Libland.
As a collective, yes. But what's the incentive for any one individual to attempt to innovate, especially given the high chance of his attempt failing? He might as well just wait for someone else to innovate.
Indeed everyone else will wait for someone else. Prisoner's Dilemma. Oops.
If that individual has progeny to nurture and protect, I would think that individual would take measures to innovate methods to do so, including grouping together with other individuals with common goals. Even if he or she didn't, the survival instinct would still persist. If that grouping no longer serves those inviduals, then they would likely want to disband it, especially if there were a sub-group of parasitic individuals within it that existed simply to maintain that group if that was their only method of survival.
If you're going to cop out with intellectual laziness rather than provide your own opinions and observations, I think I am justified in referring to someone else's work on this topic who has addressed everything you are anemically trying to assert: http://www.jrbooksonline.com/PDF_Books/why_govt_doesnt_work....
Thank you for the reference. There was no need to be rude.
Regarding the title of the reference, I'm happy to accept that government doesn't work, but I can't understand why libertarians think that libertarianism does. I shall save further comment until I've had a look at the reference.
How is flippantly pointing out some simplified abstraction like the Prisoner's Dilemma not rude? Anyway:
"In Game Theory, simple mathematical ``games´´ such as the prisoner's dilemma or the ``chicken´´ race, model situations where there is a potential benefit for players in finding a way to coordinate their action. All the ``theorems´´ about such games merely restate in formal terms the informal hypotheses that were put in the model. It certainly does not follow that government is the right way to achieve this coordination — though such is precisely the non sequitur claim of statists. Actually, it is possible to apply game theory to compare coordination through government coercion with coordination through market competition; and this exercise in game theory will easily show how dreadful the effects of government intervention are."
Libertarian thinking is predicated on the concept of minimal government, such as the author of that document (who was the Libertarian Party candidate for President). I'm confused as to why you would accept that government doesn't work, yet think that is somehow in conflict with libertarianism.
Having now read it, it doesn't deal with my original point which is essentially:
Libertarianism risks outsourcing manufacture of vital goods to foreign states of dubious intent, leaving domestic industry to die with no means of resurrecting it in an emergency.
The closest the above reference comes to dealing with this issue is:
* with free international trade, nobody will want to attack Libland because they can get at all its resources cheaply anyway, and
* Xia won't actually be able to invade Libland because they'll be too busy dealing with their own citizens, who, impressed by Libland's affluence, are too busy trying to convince Xia's rulers to convert to Libertarianism.
People will keep reserves big enough, so that they last long enough to rebuild their national food industry.
Or as I said earlier they might continue buying domestic products in order to keep that industry alive.
Even if most people neglect the risk, there will probably be individuals who keep operating food industries
(even at a loss) in hope that in the resulting war they might make huge profits.
You don't tell your neighbors about it, do you? They might say, "Oh, I don't need to store any food. I'll just go over to cx01's house and eat his food."
What would your neighbors think if you told them in advance that they couldn't have any of your food, that you personally sacrificed for in the form of opportunity cost? Would they think that you're not very neighborly? When the National Guard comes around to collect all of your stored food so that it can be distributed equally among your neighbors, are you planning on handing it over peacefully?
Paul James, 85, standing beside some 200 cases of Mountain House freeze dried food. Purchased and trucked all the way cross country from Oregon in 1975, this "mountain" of food was recently pulled down from where it was stored for 37 years. [...] The year was 1975. At that time many Americans were concerned that the Cold War with Russia could turn hot. People all over the country were building bomb shelters in their backyards and storing large quantities of food.
I was one of them. I didn’t build a shelter, but I did order $10,000 worth of Mountain House freeze dried food
My arguments should be understood in the context of tome's posts, not regarding my current situation.
Personally I don't keep reserves because there's no risk of war (at least I think so). If there was war and I had
reserves, then libertarian ethics would allow me to defend my reserves (with force).
The context of Tome's posts is that the war risk is secret. Why would another nation think that it had a good chance of successfully invading a nation that was prepared for such an invasion? Did Germany decide to invade France because the former figured the latter new well in advance of, and was well prepared for, the invasion plans?
The nation that does not prepare for war, is at risk for war. If you personally do not have any food stored, and you and I live in the same nation, it puts me personally at risk of war.
Massive French government fortification program designed to protect their borders with Germany and Italy.
France knew perfectly well that the Germans were a clear and present danger. They just could not do anything about it - despite having that great protector: government military.
The military may well have reserves, but if they are supplied by Xia, all bets are off once those reserves are depleted.
If Libland does not have the capacity to generate Food during a protracted war then it is vulnerable to external aggression. However, I don't see a way that a Libertarian state can ensure that sufficient Food production capacity is maintained in the presence of cheap Food available on the international market.
And the point is not food either. "Food" is an arbitrary good that people rely on to survive.