What keeps others from victimizing me under libertarianism?
Question 39 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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Governance is a lot bigger than government. There is a thriving market for a variety of accountability and protection products and services. The invention of financial bookkeeping made sophisticated financial audits possible. Computer software has made managing these records and auditing them faster and easier. Many journalists have made careers out of revealing scandals of public concern or reviewing products to expose the dangerous and unreliable ones.
Underwriters Laboratories has been a leading product safety testing and certification firm for more than a century, and it earns billions of dollars every year doing it, largely motivated by concerns of insurance companies that would lose money if policyholders suffer a loss. Burglar alarms, security cameras, fences, locks, and self-defense products are all produced by entrepreneurs serving the demand for protection against wrongdoers.
Make no mistake: we live in a fallen world. In this fallen world, we will face a variety of perils to which we apply our God-given talents and material resources. Libertarians do not promise a utopia. Libertarian Christians benefit from the insight of scripture. We know that a perfect human society is not possible so long as the world is in the thrall of sin. As Christians, we should prepare for tomorrow with prudence and diligence. We must be careful, though, to always put our trust in God, not in our own strength or in the plans of secular leaders. We do not always know how God is planning to work things out. However, we know our God is good and that he will lead us if we acknowledge him and look to him for guidance (Prov 3:5–6).