A Libertarian Gets Mugged

why personal safety is a collective good; maybe not the ideal post to schedule for Feb. 14, but here you go

I was robbed on February 1st, at 11 AM. I went to an ATM near me in the business district of Wheaton, Maryland, not far from the local subway station. As I walked two toward home, a man came up from behind and in a menacing voice demanded “Gimme the cash. NOW! Gimme all of it!” I wondered if he was kidding. But then I turned around and saw that he was much bigger than I am (which isn’t hard), much younger than I am (which, sadly, isn’t that hard either), and definitely not kidding. I have him the cash out of my wallet.

I might have been able to run away from the assailant. It would have been irrational for him to follow me and increase his risk of getting apprehended if someone saw him chasing me and called the police. But how do you know that the guy will behave rationally?

If for some reason I had been carrying a gun, I don’t think that would have helped. If he had a gun, I would not have wanted to count on being faster to use mine.

He was soon out of sight, and I called the police. The policeman came quickly. As he took down information, he kept repeating how glad he was that I was not injured. He was doubtful that they would be able to catch the perpetrator. He had a warm smile and a lot of sympathy. This is a progressive county, so you’re not going to get Dirty Harry.

This business district is where I walk to the Safeway for groceries, where I walk to get my hair cut, and where I walk to get on the subway. I have not been back there since the robbery.

I sent emails to the Safeway, to the bank, and to a county official who is the liaison with the business district. I suggested that businesses get together and form some sort of neighborhood watch. I heard back quickly from Safeway and from the bank. Not from the county official.

I know that there is a radical libertarianism that believes that safety can be provided by private protection services. But I cannot afford a personal bodyguard for when I walk to downtown Wheaton. And if any individual business pays for street patrols, that business will bear all of the cost, while other businesses get just as much of the benefit.

Safety in a business district offers collective benefits. That does not necessarily mean that the government will provide it. In deep blue political locations like where I live, it probably won’t. That is why I think that the best hope for saving downtown Wheaton is a neighborhood watch.

For public safety, I don’t see a libertarian alternative to having households and business get together and pool resources. Ultimately, the provider of protection services needs to be able to use force. And that ability to use force gives it the potential to turn on its clients.

Let’s drop the libertarian pretense, and call the force that provides safety for its constituents a government. The relationship between constituents and government is bound to get complicated. They are playing a repeated game with one another. Incentives are difficult to align. There is a trade-off between the government being too authoritarian and too lax.

The challenges posed by political theory cannot be boiled down to a simple catch-phrase or a permanent solution.

UPDATE: Bryan Caplan defends El Salvador’s government crackdown on gangs.

substacks referenced above:

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