Why are people so affraid of anarchy?

[Jackalope]

Not just own your own business, but can buy and sell your business.

If you own your own business, what's wrong with being able to sell it? What's wrong with being able to buy a business from someone else who is selling it to you? Seems like a freedom thing, unless I'm missing something.

There's nothing wrong with those things. The issues occur in part many people have no money, and little opportunity. In addition, capitalism tends to concentrate the wealth in the hands of very few people.

It's a great system for the haves, not so great for the have-nots.

[Anomalocaris]

No, not really.  Capitalism describes a system where industry and trade are run solely by private entities for profit.  

"Solely by private entities" you mean by individual people instead of by the government?

Here is where glorious principles can never touch reality.

In no large society that has endured and proven competitive are all industry and trade run solely by private entities for profit. Everyone has found it necessary to empower the government to develop, own and operate some portion of all industry and trade.

Conversely, there are not any truly non-capitalistic large societies that have endured. Even the for,war Soviet Union and the current North Korea has had some privately owned entity that produce, trade, or facilitate for profit.

[Jackalope]

No, not really.  Capitalism describes a system where industry and trade are run solely by private entities for profit.  Great system if you happen to have money, pretty shitty if you don't.  Or you have extravagant needs, like healthcare (which IMO, should not be a for-profit enterprise).

bold mine

In a perfect world that would be great. But in our society I don't see much medical advancement based on altruism alone.

You realize that there's a lot of grey between predatory capitalism and pure altruism to motivate people, yes?

ETA: I was imprecise when I said "for-profit". What I am opposed to is unrestrained capitalism in the healthcare arena.

[Anomalocaris]

Not just own your own business, but can buy and sell your business.

If you own your own business, what's wrong with being able to sell it? What's wrong with being able to buy a business from someone else who is selling it to you? Seems like a freedom thing, unless I'm missing something.

There is nothing wrong with it.  It's just a critical attribute of capitalism.  Without it private ownership by itself doesn't amount to capitalism.

The key attribute of capitalist system is not just private ownership of capital, but the mobility of capital.

It can be thought of as a freedom thing in the modern society, because the mechanism to mobilize capital is so well developed. Anyone who wants to move capital from less productive endeavors to more productive endeavors need to but look around to learn how, and only government suppression or massive corruption can prevent it.

But that was not always so. For most of human history most of available capitals are locked in land and the means to readily transfer capital from one farm to another or from farming to something else simply didn't exist.

[brewer]

bold mine

In a perfect world that would be great. But in our society I don't see much medical advancement based on altruism alone.

You realize that there's a lot of grey between predatory capitalism and pure altruism to motivate people, yes?

Yep. I think that we are grey now, don't you? Maybe we'd just like a different shade. I think the currents profit margins in medicine development, application and delivery are out of balance/control. Even in so called "non profits". 

I often wonder if the US patient population position/demand of "medical care at any cost" has not contributed to the problem.

[Catholic_Lady]

If you own your own business, what's wrong with being able to sell it? What's wrong with being able to buy a business from someone else who is selling it to you? Seems like a freedom thing, unless I'm missing something.

There's nothing wrong with those things.  The issues occur in part many people have no money, and little opportunity.  In addition, capitalism tends to concentrate the wealth in the hands of very few people.

It's a great system for the haves, not so great for the have-nots.

I just don't understand how allowing someone to sell or to buy their own business is unfair to people with less money.

[Anomalocaris]

You realize that there's a lot of grey between predatory capitalism and pure altruism to motivate people, yes?

Yep. I think that we are grey now, don't you? Maybe we'd just like a different shade. I think the currents profit margins in medicine development, application and delivery are out of balance/control. Even in so called "non profits". 

I often wonder if the US patient population position/demand of "medical care at any cost" has not contributed to the problem.

I think when the economy grows for a sustained period of decades, but majority of population sees little to no growth in income, the majority of the population loses its stake in capitalism, whose modt fundamental justification is really that it can supposedly enrich more people faster than competing systems.  

This is why the GOP tries to utter the word "socialism" as curse.  Their string pullers have come to realize that while capitalism certainly made the economy larger overall and has been unmatched in delivering the resulting added wealth to the top 1%, it has dramatically underperformed many more Socialistic societies in enriching 90% of the society.   Therefore it is necessary to preemptively blacken the name of socialism before the majority catches on that there is something in it for them in a more socialistic approach that capitalism as hitherto practiced in this country can't match.

[Jello]

Why have Anarchism when you can have Communism instead?

[Anomalocaris]

Why have Anarchism when you can have Communism instead?

Because you die a quick exciting death rather than a lingering miserable one?

[Thumpalumpacus]

So, why are people so affraid of anarchy?

What side of the road do you drive on? Who paved that road, and maintains it? When your house catches fire, who comes to put it out? When someone wants to shoot you in the face with rocksalt because you don't believe in their god, who restricts their ability to do so?

I don't like anarchy because it's a recipe for might-makes-right, I-got-mine-you-get-yours bullshit. People are generally assholes, and it is the social compact that allows us to live together without choking the living shit out of each other.

Laws are like the precautions on merchandise you buy ("do not drop this toaster in your bathtub while you're in it") -- they exist because some asshole somewhere went and murdered someone, or molested someone, or bilked someone -- or some asshole accused someone of murdering, molesting, and bilking and took justice into his own hands.

If you want lawlessness, move to Somalia, and let the adults run the country here.