"What evidence is there that democracies are better producers of public goods than the free market? None that I'm aware of, even for military defense."

3) My favorite analogy to the public goods rationale for coercion: Suppose Joe wants to have sex with Sue, but Sue doesn't want to. But Joe would benefit more from having sex with Sue than it would cost her, so Sue ought to be forced to have sex with Joe..."
Tim Starr

In a society of millions, it is very expensive for a given individual to convince everyone that a given law is correct, even though virtually everyone wants laws that must apply to everyone. Since the cost of creating a law that everyone publically agrees to is concentrated on the people trying to get everyone's consent, and the benefits are diffuse in society, *the law itself* is a public good. And it will be virtually impossible to create unanimous consent (for any law whatsoever) because of the selfish incentive of some to lie about their preferences, in order to make money from those libertarians so enamored of consent, that they must pay off those who disagree to get them to change their mind.

Therefore, if Tim does not believe in government production of public goods (like the laws of America and England), then he must logically not believe in the public production of the law itself, because it is the fundamental public good. And so he must logically believe that laws should only apply to those who voluntarily consent to them.

Therefore a law prohibiting rape will not apply to a rapist, who by definition does not voluntarily submit to the law. So contrary to what Tim says, libertarianism logically permits rape, even though the overwhelming majority of libertarians are opposed to it.

So what does stop rape? Certainly not libertarian principles, which logically permit it.

The overwhelming majority of citizens know that rape is wrong. Our moral compass is so clear on this that we vote to outlaw rape, regardless of what the minority thinks, and then use the coercive power of the state to force any rapist who disagrees with us to do what we want. This is democracy in action.