Fair. But again I ask how you get this sense of collective action and, more importantly, collective protection without invoking something that looks like a state.
People are naturally self-interested and left free to pursue those interests they come up with incredible things. The fact that we are
animals that are driving around in cars, flying in planes, speaking different languages and instantly communicating with each other through the internet is just incredible, yet it is only a sliver of what we have done.
The collective action needed just to create a pencil is itself a mammoth task:
Are you asking Ikki how private firms can add value and the state can't? Btw, does Ikki think private firms add value? Over and above individuals' actions because of their structure, I mean.
It's not a distinction that makes a difference re private firms and individuals for this discussion. Individuals can get together and create private firms and that's desirable if it is voluntary.
The difference between the state and a private firm is that the latter can only survive long term if it does something that the rest of us want or deem desirable. The former can simply cage us if we don't pony up the dough. That inherent difference and the market signals re cost are important reasons why even if the state can fund certain activities, it is the least desirable way to fund them because of the morally corrupt way it redistributes capital, as well as it being the least efficient way to redistribute capital. It'd be like saying "well, I won a million at the Casino because the government bankrolled me". Sure, you're going to have successes but overall that is a losing scheme. People need to go through the tribulations that predate success as that journey itself builds the character and intellect needed to change the world in any lasting and meaningful way. It is
why the cold war was won by the Americans and not the Communists.
We have a period widely known as the industrial revolution wherein a couple centuries as a species we made so many advances. The more we funnel money away from the smart people and more to people who seek power (and who are ultimately corrupted by it) the more brakes we are putting on our progress as a species and our ultimate survival. The IT industry is probably one of the least regulated and in a matter of a few decades it has transformed our world. It's not just because time passed and we got lucky some people were smart - there are tonnes of smart people around the world (and were in the past, regardless of how people judge them when revising history) - and made these inventions; it is because our communication with each other has simply gotten faster and clearer. From horses, to cars, to the internet...we create a global nervous system that is reacting to newer and newer innovations. It is not a coincidence that all the technologies/services that aid us in connecting are those that become hugely profitable/beneficial and era defining - it has happened across all human history.
Money/property is also critical because the exchange of them - what people are actually willing to spend their money/efforts on - is what represents what they truly care for. The market is its' own form of communication. Throughout history there is a trend: the states that have the strongest property rights are the ones that are the most prosperous. Aside from the products and services that come to fruition; it means people have to deal with each other fairly and this creates a culture amongst all whereby we learn to respect each other via the law, one we agree on because it mutually benefits us as we have no other means to force them to our will. And that's what communism, socialism or many far left ideologies try to hide: it is just a cover for some people to rationalise the force they want to use against others to benefit themselves unfairly - people that support them are just good at fooling themselves and trying to re-represent reality so that others can be indoctrinated also.
It is a bit off-topic but at this stage you begin to understand the essence of religion: all of human history is one large lesson to tell you that you're a corruptible being, do not delude yourself from that fact otherwise that is when paradise turns into hell. Understand yourself and your flaws and live in harmony with others. But if you begin lying to yourself and creating your own reality, then you are going to create a society that lies to itself and creates its' own artificial reality.