Much as a
traveller who returns home and sees things in a new light from what he or she has
learned from foreign lands and ways of life, we may gain new insights on our present
circumstances.
Besides a few enlightened New Libertarians tolerated in the more liberal statist areas
on the globe ("toleration" exists to the degree of libertarian contamination of statism), we now perceive something else: large numbers of people who are acting in an
agorist manner with little understanding of any theory but who are induced by
material gain to evade, avoid, or defy the State. Surely they are a hopeful potential?
In the Soviet Union, a bastion of arch-statism and a nearly totally collapsed "official"
economy, a giant black market provides the Russians, Armenian, Ukrainian and
others with everything from food to television repair to official papers and favors
from the ruling class. As the Guardian Weekly reports, Burma is almost a total black
market with the government reduced to an army, police, and a few strutting
politicians. In varying degrees, this is true of nearly all the Second and Third Worlds.
What of the "First" World? In the social-democrat countries, the black market is smaller because the "white market" of legally accepted market transactions is larger, but the former is still quite prominent. Italy, for example, has a "problem" of a large part of its civil services which works officially from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M. working
unofficially at various jobs the rest of the day earning "black" money. The
Netherlands has a large black market in housing because of the high regulation of
this industry. Denmark has a tax evasion movement so large that those in it seduced
to politics have formed the second largest party. And these are only the grossest
examples that the press has been able or willing to cover. Currency controls are
evaded rampantly; in France, for example, everyone is assumed to have a large gold
stash and trips to Switzerland for more than touring and skiing are commonplace.
To really appreciate the extent of this counter-economic activity, one must view the
relatively free "capitalist" economies. Let us look at the black and grey markets [5] in North America and remember this is the case of lowest activity in the world today.
According to the American Internal Revenue Service, at least twenty million people
belong in the "underground economy" of tax evaders using cash to avoid detections of transactions or barter exchange. Millions keep money in gold or in foreign accounts
to avoid the hidden taxation of inflation. Millions of "illegal aliens" are employed, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Millions more deal or
consume marijuana and other proscribed drugs, including laetrile and forbidden
medical material.
And there are all the practitioners of "victimless crimes." Besides drug use, there are prostitution, pornography, bootlegging, false identification papers, gambling, and
proscribed sexual conduct between consenting adults. Regardless of "reform
movements" to gain political acceptance of these acts, the populace has chosen to act now - and by so doing are creating a counter-economy.
But it doesnt stop here. Since the 55 mph speed limit enacted federally in the U.S.,
most Americans have become counter-economic drivers. The trucking industry has
developed CB communications to evade state enforcement of regulations. For
independents who can make four runs at 75 mph rather than three runs at 55 mph,
counter-economic driving is a question of survival.
The ancient custom of smuggling thrives today from boatloads of marijuana and
foreign appliances with high tariffs and truckloads of people from less- developed
countries to the tourists stashing a little extra in their luggage and not reporting to
customs agents.
Nearly everyone engages in some sort of misrepresentation or misdirection on their
tax forms, off-the-books payments for services, unreported trade with relatives and
illegal sexual positions with their mates.
To some extent, then, everybody is a counter-economist! And this is predictable from libertarian theory. Nearly every aspect of human action has statist legislation
prohibiting, regulating or controlling it. These laws are so numerous that
"Libertarian" Party which prevented any new legislation and briskly repealed ten or twenty laws a session would not have significantly repealed the State (let alone the
mechanism itself!) for a millennium! [6]
Obviously, the State is unable to obtain enforcement of its edicts. Yet the State
continues. And if everyone is somewhat counter-economic, why hasn't the Counter-
Economy overwhelmed the economy?
Outside of North America we can add the effect of imperialism. The Soviet Union has
received support from the more developed countries in the 1930's and large
quantities of instruments of violence during World War II. Even today, "trade" heavily subsidized by non-repayable loans props up the Soviet and new Chinese regimes. This
capital (or anti-capital, being destructive of value) flow, together with military aid,