"The State" should not be confused with any does not mean Washington or Texas, but is able to refer to as what is commonly known as the "government." The reason why a lot of anarchist tend to not use the word government and use the state is because in an anarcho-capitalist or voluntaryist society the market is the governing force. In the market there are enforceable contract rules and norms are still around. The difference between the state and the free market is that the States is the one that falsely upholds itself as the ultimate arbitrator in all conflicts, as well as the exclusive privilege to create, interpret and enforce law; in the free market on the other hand the people and their individual actions create the governance needed within a market. Hans-Hermann Hoppe sums up the State by saying:
Fist the state is an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of ultimate decision making. That is, the state is the ultimate arbiter in every case of conflict, including conflicts involving itself. It allows no appeal above and beyond itself. Second, the state is an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of taxation. That is ,, it is an agency that unilaterally fixes the price that private citizens must pay for the state's service as ultimate judge and enforcer of law and order.
The State is totally illegitimate in it's perceived rights to exercise control over good that its agents never acquired through original appropriation or voluntary exchange (check out my post "What is the Private Property Norm?" for more details on acquiring property) and without the consent of the rightful owners of said resources.
This is what separates the false "social contract" of the State from a clothing store owner who expects a customer to pay before leaving the store with clothes. In the first place the store owner presents the goods and confirms the customer's specific request for clothing and only then asks for payment. This is in contrast to where the State first steals wealth from its citizens in the form of taxes, and we are told this is for the payment for services rendered by the State. The store owner is required to have the clothes and the land and shop before the customer paid for anything. The state on the other hand doesn't require it have rightful ownership of the goods before usage.
I hope this was a good introduction on what the state is. I will in the future talk about the economic problems of having a state. But before we do that we have to first explore the bedrock of Praxeology to study why humans do the things they do within a market.
I do this only for my own inner workings to be negotiated with the public, so I can better flow with others through the aggregate. That being said please critique my work if it needs, I much rather that then an up-vote.
