The Machinery of Freedom

1973 nonfiction book by David D. Friedman

The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism

Cover

Author| David D. Friedman
Language| English
Subject| Anarcho-capitalism
Publisher| Open Court Publishing Company

Publication date

| 1973; 2nd edition 1989; 3rd edition 2014
Publication place| United States
Media type| Paperback, Electronic
ISBN| 0-8126-9069-9
OCLC| 19388655

Dewey Decimal

| 323.44 19
LC Class| JC585 .F76 1989

The Machinery of Freedom is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman that advocates an anarcho-capitalist society from a consequentialist perspective.

The book was published in 1973,[1] with a second edition in 1989 and a third edition in 2014.

## Overview

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The book aims to show that law and its enforcement do not require a state, but can be sustained by non-coercive private enterprise and charity. It explores the consequences of libertarian thought, describes examples of stateless societies (such as the Icelandic Commonwealth) and offers the author's personal statement about why he became a libertarian. Topics addressed in the book include polycentric law and the provision of public goods such as military defense in a stateless society. Friedman argues that a stateless legal system would be beneficial for society as a whole, including the poor.

While some books supporting similar libertarian and anarcho-capitalist views offer support in terms of morality or natural rights, Friedman (although he explicitly denies being a utilitarian)[note 1] here argues largely in terms of the effects of his proposed policies.[2]

Friedman conjectures that anything done by government costs at least twice as much as a privately provided equivalent,[3][note 2] which has been labeled as his eponymous law: "It costs any government at least twice as much to do something as it costs anyone else."[4] He offers examples as evidence such as a comparison of the cost of the United States Postal Service's costs for package delivery with the costs of private carriers and the cost of the Soviet government versus market based services in the West.[note 3]

## Reception

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The Institute of Public Affairs, a libertarian think tank located in Australia, included The Machinery of Freedom in a list of the "Top 20 books you must read before you die" in 2006.[5]

Liberty magazine named the book among The Top Ten Best Libertarian Books, praising Friedman for tackling the problems related to private national defense systems and attempting to solve them.[6][7]

## Related books

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* The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer builds on Friedman's vision of an anarcho-capitalist society in considerable detail
* Chaos Theory by Robert P. Murphy
* Order Without Law by Robert Ellickson
* For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard
* The Market for Liberty by Linda and Morris Tannehill
* The Enterprise of Law by Bruce L. Benson

## See also

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* Dispersed knowledge
* Government success
* Milton Friedman – father of David Friedman
* Tax choice
* X-inefficiency

## Notes

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1. ^ Second Edition, pg. 165
2. ^ Second edition, p. 85.
3. ^ Second edition, p. 85.

## References

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1. ^ Banks, Evan (6 March 2012). "Friedman discusses has book,The Machinery of Freedom, and offers some additional insights he has had since its publication". www.libertarianism.org. Retrieved 2023-08-06.
2. ^ Rothbard, Murray (July 1977). "Do You Hate the State?". The Libertarian Forum. Retrieved September 25, 2016 - via Mises Institute.
3. ^ Caré, Sébastien. "Anarcho-capitalism and Moral Philosophy: Deontological versus Consequentialist Ethics". Anarchist Studies Network. Retrieved July 12, 2014. "Friedman states the 'law' that anything done by government costs at least twice as much as a privately provided equivalent."
4. ^ https://www. econlib.org/archives/2009/06/friedmans_law.html
5. ^ Shearmur, Jeremy. Institute of Public Affairs Review, July 2006, Vol. 58, Issue 2, p. 28, 1/3p (AN 22056148).
6. ^ Vavasour, Liam (September 2006). Cox, Stephen (ed.). "Ten Great Books of Liberty" (PDF). Liberty. 20 (9): 21–33. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
7. ^ Kinsella, Stephan (August 3, 2006). "Top Ten Books of Liberty". Mises Institute. Retrieved July 12, 2014.

## External links

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* The Machinery of Freedom (full text PDF file of the second edition)
* The Machinery of Freedom (full text PDF file of the third edition)
* The Machinery of Freedom at Friedman's personal website, including free chapters of the book
* "Illustrated Video Summary of The Machinery of Freedom" on YouTube
* "Economics of David D. Friedman's The Machinery of Freedom: Some similarities and dissimilarities to the Austrian school"

* v
* t
* e

Anarcho-capitalism

Origins|

* Aristotelianism
* Austrian school of economics
* Marginalism
* School of Salamanca
* Subjective theory of value
* Objectivism
* Classical liberalism
* French Liberal School
* Homestead principle
* Labor theory of property
* Physiocracy
* Individualist anarchism

Concepts|

* Anti-statism
* Civil rights
* Corporate governance
* Counter-economics
* Decentralization
* Departurism
* Deregulation
* Economic liberalism
* Evictionism
* Free market
* Free-market roads
* Free trade
* Freedom of contract
* Individualism
* Jurisdictional arbitrage
* Laissez-faire
* Land tenure
* Market anarchism
* Natural law
* Non-aggression principle
* Polycentric law
* Private defense (Army (Company / list), Intelligence, Investigator, Police, Security)
* Private property
* Privatization
* Propertarianism
* Property rights
* Right to property
* Self-ownership
* Spontaneous order
* Title-transfer theory of contract
* Voluntaryism

People|

* Bruce L. Benson
* Walter Block
* Bryan Caplan
* Gerard Casey
* Anthony de Jasay
* David D. Friedman
* Hans-Hermann Hoppe
* Michael Huemer
* Stephan Kinsella
* Michael Malice
* Javier Milei
* Robert P. Murphy
* Wendy McElroy
* Lew Rockwell
* Murray Rothbard
* Joseph Salerno
* Jeffrey Tucker
* Tom Woods

Works|

* The Market for Liberty (1970)
* For a New Liberty (1973)
* The Machinery of Freedom (1973)
* Defending the Undefendable (1976)
* The Ethics of Liberty (1982)
* To Serve and Protect (1998)
* Democracy: The God That Failed (2001)
* The Voluntary City (2002)
* The Problem of Political Authority (2012)

Issues|

* Abortion
* Anarchism
* Capital punishment
* Criticism
* Foreign affairs
* Immigration
* Inheritance
* Intellectual property
* Internal debates
* LGBT rights
* Minarchism
* Objectivism
* Political parties
* Politics
* Theories of law

Related topics|

* Agorism
* Right-libertarianism
* Libertarianism in the United States
* Left-libertarianism

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*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
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