Philosophical anarchism, as championed by thinkers like Lysander Spooner and modern voices like Dominic Frisby in Life After the State, argues that the state is a primary source of evil, eroding liberty and fostering inefficiency through its monopolistic control over money, education, healthcare, and justice. Frisby's book exposes how state interventions, such as taxation widening wealth gaps or central banks fuelling asset bubbles, make things worse despite good intentions. Adding to this critique, the economic philosophy of Douglas Social Credit, developed by C.H. Douglas in the 1920s, offers a radical alternative to state-controlled money, proposing a system where wealth is distributed directly to citizens to bridge the gap between production and consumption. Together, anarchism and Social Credit provide a blueprint for dismantling the state and building a freer society.
But how can a determined people move from this centralised, coercive system to a post-state era of voluntary cooperation, individual liberty, and equitable wealth distribution? This discussion outlines a path, weaving in Frisby's insights, Douglas's ideas, historical precedents, and practical steps, all while avoiding the dystopian chaos critics fear.
The Case Against the State and the Promise of Social Credit
Frisby's Life After the State argues that government intervention distorts markets and undermines liberty. He cites examples like Europe's most entrepreneurial city turning "sick" due to welfare bloat, or taxation increasing inequality by favouring asset holders over wage earners. Philosophical anarchism, from Spooner's No Treason (1867), calls the state a "band of robbers" imposing laws without consent, such as taxation, government thief. A 2023 Cato Institute study supports this, estimating that government inefficiencies cost advanced economies 15-20% of GDP annually, while state-controlled monetary policies drove U.S. inflation to 9.1% in 2022.
C.H. Douglas's Social Credit theory adds a critical layer: the state's control of money creates a structural flaw in capitalism. Douglas argued that the economy produces more goods than people can afford due to insufficient purchasing power, leading to poverty amid abundance. His solution? A "National Dividend" paid directly to citizens and a "Just Price" mechanism to lower costs, bypassing banks and governments. In a 1933 speech, Douglas estimated that distributing surplus production could eliminate poverty without inflation, a concept echoed in modern basic income experiments like Stockton, California's 2018 trial, which boosted employment by 12% (per a 2021 study), but which are very limited compared to the more comprehensive policies of social credit.
The state's coercive nature, enforcing taxes, laws, and wars, stifles freedom and perpetuates inequality. Social Credit offers a way to break this cycle by empowering individuals with direct wealth, while anarchism envisions replacing state functions with voluntary systems. How do we get there without descending into a Mad Max nightmare?
Step 1: Cultivate a Mindset of Self-Reliance and Economic Empowerment
The state thrives on dependency, and Frisby argues that reliance on government services traps people in a cycle of compliance. Social Credit challenges this by giving individuals financial autonomy through dividends, freeing them from wage slavery. To move toward a post-state era, people must embrace self-reliance, mutual aid, and the idea that wealth isn't the state's to control.
Actionable steps include:
Education Campaigns: Spread anarchist and Social Credit ideas via X, podcasts, or meetups, emphasising personal responsibility and the National Dividend. Highlight successes like cryptocurrency communities bypassing central banks or Alberta's 1930s Social Credit experiments, which issued "prosperity certificates" to citizens.
Skill-Building: Encourage learning practical skills, gardening, coding, first aid, to reduce state dependency. Online platforms like Coursera or local workshops can support this, aligning with Social Credit's focus on individual agency.
Community Networks: Form mutual aid groups to share resources, from childcare to food co-ops, as seen in 19th-century mutual aid societies that covered millions before welfare states (per David Beito's From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State, 2000). Pair this with local dividend systems, like community-backed tokens, to test Social Credit principles.
Step 2: Decentralise Economic Systems with Social Credit
Frisby's critique of central banks, setting money prices like "Soviet butter," dovetails with Douglas's view that state-controlled finance starves the economy. Social Credit proposes distributing wealth directly to citizens, bypassing banks. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, with a 2025 market cap of $1.2 trillion, already enable this to a degree, by sidestepping inflationary fiat systems. Blockchain-based smart contracts, like those on Ethereum ($4 trillion in transactions in 2024), can enforce Douglas's "Just Price" by automating discounts.
To implement:
Adopt Crypto and Dividends: Promote cryptocurrencies as a stepping stone to Social Credit dividends. Communities could issue local tokens as micro-dividends, like the Bristol Pound in the UK, used by 800+ businesses in 2023.
Crowdfunding and DAOs: Use decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) to fund projects without government grants, aligning with Social Credit's citizen-driven wealth. DAOs raised $500 million for community initiatives in 2023, per CoinDesk.
Barter and Local Systems: Revive barter networks, like Argentina's 2001 crisis-era trade clubs, and integrate Social Credit-style credits to ensure equitable exchange.
Step 3: Build Parallel Institutions
A post-state society needs alternatives to state-run education, healthcare, and justice, which Frisby argues are bloated and inefficient (e.g., U.S. tuition costs up 180% since 1980, per the National Center for Education Statistics). Social Credit's dividends could fund these alternatives, empowering individuals to choose private services. The Free State Project in New Hampshire, with 6,000 residents by 2025, shows how private schools, clinics, and arbitration can work without state involvement.
Steps include:
Private Education: Support home-schooling co-ops and private academies, funded by community dividends. The Free State Project educates 20% of its children outside public systems.
Healthcare Cooperatives: Establish subscription-based clinics, like direct primary care models, which cut costs by 30-50% (per a 2022 Health Affairs study). Dividends could cover memberships, aligning with Social Credit's wealth distribution.
Dispute Resolution: Use private arbitration or blockchain-based "smart courts" like Kleros, which resolved 1,000+ disputes in 2024. Social Credit funds could subsidise access for all.
Step 4: Resist and Disengage
Anarchism thrives on non-compliance, and Social Credit amplifies this by reducing financial dependence on the state. Historical examples, like Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, show the power of collective refusal. The U.S. tax resistance movement, with 10,000+ participants annually (per the IRS), avoids funding wars and bureaucracies.
Practical resistance includes:
Tax Minimisation: Use legal loopholes, offshore accounts, or crypto to reduce tax liability, legally only!
Opt Out: Boycott state services, choosing private security, home-schooling, or Social Credit-inspired local currencies. The Amish maintain self-sufficient communities this way.
Civil Protest: Organise peaceful protests against mandates, like vaccine or digital ID systems, as seen in 2021 European anti-lockdown movements.
Step 5: Foster a Post-State Vision with Social Credit
The biggest challenge is proving a stateless society isn't chaos. Frisby counters the "Mad Max" stereotype with examples of voluntary cooperation, while Social Credit offers a mechanism to ensure economic fairness. Historical stateless systems, like medieval Iceland's legal framework or Mexico's Zapatista communities, worked for decades. In 2025, decentralised tech, blockchain, 3D printing, peer-to-peer networks, makes this scalable, with Social Credit dividends ensuring no one is left behind.
To inspire the vision:
Storytelling: Share success stories of stateless and Social Credit systems, from crypto communities to Alberta's 1930s experiments, via documentaries or X threads.
Pilot Projects: Test anarchist communities with Social Credit dividends, like seasteading or intentional communes. The Seasteading Institute's floating cities are a start.
Cultural Shift: Promote liberty and cooperation through art and media, countering state propaganda. Punk rock's 1970s anarchist ethos inspired millions; a modern equivalent could rally support for Social Credit's equitable vision.
The Risks and the Hope
The state won't vanish easily, wielding militaries, police, and propaganda. Transitioning risks economic disruption or elite backlash, as seen in China's 2021 Bitcoin ban. Yet, decentralised tech and Social Credit's promise of shared prosperity give people tools to bypass the state. Frisby's data, government inefficiencies, historical mutual aid, combined with Douglas's vision of direct wealth distribution, offers a path forward. A determined people can reject dependence, build parallel systems, and distribute wealth equitably, one step at a time.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-State-Dont-Government/dp/B0CWFDBJTX
Life After the State: Why We Don't Need Government Paperback – November 7, 2013by Dominic Frisby(Author)
Life After the State is a book that will change the way you think about money, education, healthcare and social justice forever. Combining the story-telling skills of Morgan Housel's The Psychology of Money with the number-crunching investigative style of Tim Harford's Undercover Economist, this is a quest into a topic too many of us take for granted – at our peril.Dominic Frisby never used to think about government. But a fascination with the world of finance led him to a lifetime of investigation, and what he discovered changed how he saw the world.
Wherever government gets involved in people's lives with a desire to do good, it seems to make the situation much, much worse. What if that's not a coincidence – but a fundamental problem with government itself?
The idea of life without a state conjures up Mad Max scenarios. But could the era of the big state in fact be driving us towards a breakdown?
Over 20 story-filled and eye-opening chapters, Life After the State reveals dozens of astonishing insights, including:
How the most entrepreneurial city in Europe became its sickest
The unspoken reason your family is getting smaller
The unlikely candidate for the biggest murderer in history
How taxation and redistribution of wealth actually increase the gap between the haves and have-nots
The empty promise on every currency note
The untold history of the wild results of inflation (including a venture to drain the Red Sea and recover the gold that Moses had left after he parted the waters)
The baffling way that the price of one of the most important possible things – money – is set by central planners, like Soviet butter
How debt fuels asset prices in a relentless cycle, depriving those on fixed incomes
And much, much more.
Wherever you are on the political spectrum, this is a fascinating exploration of an urgent question – with huge implications for every aspect of modern life. You'll be shocked by what Frisby found. You'll also be inspired by the surprising things that we can all do to ensure that everyone flourishes – in a world without government.
*****
Here's what people are saying about Life After the State:
"Life After the State challenges so much of what we take for granted. It is a wake-up call for politicians, economists and us all, written with clarity, verve and, more than that, the restless passion of an intelligent, inquisitive malcontent. Read it."
– James Harding, editor and founder of Tortoise; former director of BBC News and editor of the Times
"The scalpel-brain of an economy geek and the sharp tongue of a stand-up comedian… His arguments are not only convincing in principle … they are also compelling in practice. I loved the book."
– Mark Smith, Herald Scotland
"Things are so bad that in our time only a comedian can make sense of an economy based on printing money."
– Guido Fawkes, political blogger