august on Nostr: Generally a private firm reaches a certain size and relies on lobbying the ...

Generally a private firm reaches a certain size and relies on lobbying the government. Sure, getting rid of the government would help more private firms stick to voluntary exchange principles, but there is a very real chance some company would find itself in the position to be the top dog in a particular area- especially when it came to issues like defense.

It seems to me the best way to align incentives is if the defender was more like a king or patriarch, and said defender actually had most of his wealth ensconced in the territory he was responsible for defending. Then there are fewer perverse incentives.

But if we don't try to directly end bureaucratic rule, we end up with people who get paid regardless of outcome- and may even get bonuses for creating more wars and/or other poor outcomes for a territory they supposedly defend. There's no panacea- there would still be people tempted to do the wrong thing, but if the incentives are aligned correctly, it would happen less often, and certainly wouldn't be systematic- or global, as we've seen with the the nonsense we've had to deal with over the past few years.