Joshua Warren is generally considered America's first individual anarchist. The Peaceful Revolutionist, which he started in 1833, is considered the first anarchist journal. In 1825, Warren participated in the immigrant community experiment led by Robert Owen in an attempt to create a harmonious collectivist community, which later ended in failure. In his review of the failure of the experiment, he passionately advocated a shift to a system of individualism and private property. He elaborated on his review of the failure of this collectivist experiment in Practical Details, where he outlined his radical individualism and strongly advocated individual negative freedom:
Society must change into Protect the sovereignty of every individual from infringement. All institutions which may connect or combine persons with each other, and all other institutions which may prevent individuals from freely moving at all times and disposing of their property freely, must be avoided as long as such actions do not interfere with the equal rights of others.
In True Civilization, Warren equates "individual sovereignty" with the "unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" advocated in the American Declaration of Independence. He maintained that personal sovereignty is "innate" and "cannot be separated or transferred by organisms" and therefore "this nature cannot be changed. Everyone has the same absolute right to pursue his or her beliefs or beliefs." It is his characteristic, no matter to what extent, as long as it does not hinder others." Warren also coined the famous saying "cost is the price limit" to describe his interpretation of the labor theory of value.
The labor value theory asserts that the price of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor involved in producing the commodity. From this argument, Warren believed that it was unethical to raise the price of an item beyond the cost of production. He calls his benchmark motto "Cost is the price limit." In addition, Warren also argued that if labor itself is the ultimate value, then two different individuals performing equal amounts of labor must be equal to equal value.
In 1827, Warren founded an experimental store based on his theory, called the "Cincinnati Time Store", to assist the store's labor certificates issued as currency. , people can buy products in the store with their tickets. This labor voucher experiment can be regarded as the first practice of Proudhon’s mutualist economic theory. Warren and Proudhon, both American and European, developed similar philosophies, yet they had never collaborated or heard each other's names. Benjamin Tucker argued that the theory of profit as a form of exploitation based on the value of labor was first proposed by Warren, followed by Proudhon, and then Marx.
Like all subsequent American individualists, Warren firmly supported the right of individuals to retain the products of their labor, including production tools, as private property. He also opposed the state's granting of land ownership early on, believing that it would create special privileges and monopolies, but as he later showed in his article Equitable Commerce, he also accepted the right to own, buy, and sell land. But he only supports land sales that generate no profit. This position was also adopted by some later anarchists such as Stephen Peel Andrews.
Warren declared: "As long as the government is eliminated, we have eliminated the greatest threat to human rights." American historian James J. Martin said: "The basic structure of American anarchism has nothing to do with it. Undoubtedly derived from the social and economic experiments and writings of Joshua Warren." American anarchists after Warren also respected his influence. Stephen Peel Andrews was a personal anarchist and close friend of Joshua Warren.
Andrews was originally involved in the Fourierist movement, but became a radical individualist after reading many of Warren's works. He insisted on "individual sovereignty" as the supreme principle.
Andrews argued that when individuals act in their own self-interest, they unintentionally benefit society as a whole. He believes that it is a "mistake" for humans to create "state, church, or public ethics" because these systems and traditions emphasize that individuals should serve the group rather than pursue their own happiness. In the article Love, Marriage and Divorce, and the Sovereignty of the Individual, he stated, “Let us give up on more government as a way to solve the evil problems created by the original government. The solution should be—toward individualism and freedom without government. ...Nature created man, not the state; as long as states exist in the world, individual liberty will be violated."
In 1851, Andrews and Warren founded it together on Long Island, New York. A personal anarchist community called Modern Times. When talking about Andrews's contribution to personal anarchism, Benjamin Tucker said: "Anarchists will especially remember his contribution because he left the best written substitute for anarchist principles. An English work of defense. William Green did not become a mature anarchist until the last ten years before his death, but he was involved in the anarchist movement for much longer, and he played a considerable role in the development of individualist economic theory. Contributions. Warren advocated the individualistic economic concept of "cost is the price limit", while Greene is best known for his concept of "mutual banks" (although Lysander Spooner's earlier work Guerin was sometimes referred to as the "American Proudhon" because his concept of a mutual bank was closely related to that of France's Pierre. Jerome-Joseph Proudhon is best known for his paper entitled Mutual Banks. Benjamin Tucker said: "I am indebted to Greene. The Mutual Bank records more financial knowledge than I have ever had in any similar book or periodical—it is the most concise, forthright, and clear treatise on the theory of mutual money. ”
Green saw people’s urgent need for banks. He believed that people needed an intermediary service platform so that those with surplus capital could lend capital to those in need. He believed that it was necessary Government regulations requiring a license to establish a bank severely discouraged those interested in establishing mutual interest banks. Green acknowledged that interest rates were set by supply and demand, but he believed that if true free competition in lending and interest rates could be allowed, Then the market will produce a certain degree of "natural interest rate". He believes that under the natural interest rate, it is impossible for banks to make any profits.
He advocated that such mutual banks should allow individuals to use any of their money. He strongly criticized the government for not establishing its own official currency as the only "legal currency" and monopolizing the right of others to issue currency. Green and several other well-known individualists also criticized it. They worked together to obtain a charter to create a bank, but were rejected because they were pursuing a mutual bank, but this only strengthened the determination of the individual anarchists to oppose the "bank monopoly". Another individual anarchist influenced by Warren, he was also a radical abolitionist and feminist who also wrote one of the earliest essays on anarchofeminism. The excessive concentration of capital in the hands of a few people is caused by the government granting privileges to a few individuals and companies.
He said: "The government is like the northeast wind, blowing property into the hands of a few nobles. , and the price paid is seriously eroding the foundation of democracy. Through cunning legislation...the privileged class can use government laws as a backing to steal the property of the majority. ”
He believed that profit from the rent of the building was unjust.
He is not opposed to rent, but he believes the total rent should not exceed the total cost of moving, insuring and maintaining the house. He even believes that if the tenant keeps the house in better condition than when it was unoccupied, the owner should in turn pay the tenant rent. Although other individual anarchists such as Warren, Andrews, and Green all supported the idea that unoccupied land could be used and claimed, Heywood believed that it was extremely evil to title unused land.
Haywood clashed with Warren on this and other issues, but the two remained on friendly terms. Heywood's philosophy became widespread through the extensive pamphlets and articles he wrote, and he also republished many of the works of Warren and Green, further expanding the ideas of individual anarchism. Benjamin Tucker was inspired by Warren (who Tucker called the "first light" of his life), Greene, Heywood, as well as France's Prudhon and Germany's Max Sti Influenced by the likes of Ronald Reagan, he is perhaps the most well-known American individualist. Tucker's definition of anarchism is that "all human affairs should be managed by individuals themselves or organized voluntarily, and the state should be abolished."
Like the individualists who inspired him , he rejected the notion that "society" itself had rights, arguing that only individuals could have rights. At the same time, like all anarchists, he opposed the exercise of democratic institutions by government, which could result in the majority dominating the minority. However, Tucker's main concern is economic issues. He opposed profits, arguing that profits were possible only when governments "imposed suppression or restrictions on competition" and when wealth was extremely concentrated.
He believes that restrictions on competition are accompanied by four "monopolies": banking monopoly, land monopoly, tariff monopoly, and patent and copyright monopoly. According to Tucker, the most harmful of them all is the monopoly on money, because it would impose restrictions on competitors who want to enter the banking industry and issue money. At the same time, monopolization of unused land is also extremely harmful because it leads to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a privileged few.
Tucker clearly opposed collectivist concepts such as economic egalitarianism. He believed that unequal distribution of wealth was an inevitable result of a liberal environment.
Tucker believed that economic monopoly forced almost everyone to engage in usury. But equally, he believes that this problem can be solved by abolishing the monopoly on banks. The "primary offender" of the bank monopoly is the state - because it is the state that established this monopoly, and the "primary loan sharks" are those who enjoy the monopoly privileges, not ordinary individuals pursuing profits. Although Tucker believes that taking profits is "usury", he opposes prohibiting people from taking profits. He believes that individuals should have the right to sign any contract, as long as these contracts do not reach the level of harming and or killing human beings: "We It is a defense of the right to take profits from usury, not the right of usury itself." He believes that everyone should be allowed to issue loans without the need for government licenses. He believes that as competition increases, it will become increasingly difficult to make a profit from issuing loans. Tucker believes that as long as the banking industry is deregulated, labor wages can rise. He believes that as long as there is competition among the banking industry, bank interest rates will be lowered and the wave of entrepreneurship will be further stimulated. He believes that this will significantly reduce the number of individuals seeking salaried jobs, allowing them to start their own businesses, and the ensuing frequent competition will further drive up labor wages. "So driving interest rates down also triggers a wave of higher wages."
Tucker opposes the protection of unused land, arguing that land can only be titled when it is occupied or used. He believed that if all "monopolies" were broken down, private ownership of capital would be more widely distributed throughout society. This would increase competition in the lending and employment markets, making profits almost impossible.
Tucker initially based his philosophy on natural law, but after he read the egoistic writings of Max Stirner, he came to believe that morality and rights could not exist before contracts were signed, and therefore contracts Necessity amounts to morality and rights themselves, guided by human self-interest, which is the foundation of private law.
Tuck published a journal called Liberty, which is widely regarded as the best personal anarchist journal ever published in the English-speaking world. Tucker also once described his philosophy as "fearless Jeffersonian democracy."
Like many individualists, Tucker did not believe that the utopian ideal of peace could be realized under anarchy. Therefore, he advocated that personal freedom and property should be handed over to private defense and security agencies, but he opposed allowing the state to monopolize security services. He advocated that private companies providing security services should compete with each other in the free market. He said: "Security services Like other services, it is labor that is useful and in demand, so it should also be a commodity that conforms to the principle of demand and supply economically. In a free market, goods will be priced at the cost of production, competition is quite common, and consumption is common. Consumers will choose the one with the lowest price and best quality; however, the production and sale of this commodity are still monopolized by the state; as for the state, like all monopolies, it charges exorbitant fees...and in the end, the state The monopoly would charge more than any other monopolist because it would have the privilege of forcing everyone to buy its product whether they wanted to or not."
In Tucker's later years. Said: "Capitalism is at least tolerable, but socialism and communism are definitely not." According to Susan Love Brown, this theory "further expanded into anarcho-capitalism that emerged in the 1970s." Lysander Spooner rarely collaborated with other individualists for most of his life, and it was not until he published his most famous treatise late in life that he began to exert his influence. At the time, his philosophy ranged from advocating for limits on the role of the state to outright opposition to the state system. Spooner was a strong supporter of "natural law" and believed that all individuals had a "natural right" to do whatever they wanted, as long as it did not violate the bodies or property of others.
With natural rights come contractual rights, which Spooner considered very important. He believed that the government should not create laws because laws already exist naturally; any government action that violates natural law (using coercive force) is illegal. Since the government did not enter into contracts with the individuals it governed, he argued that the government itself violated natural law because it used the tax system to force individuals with whom it did not enter into contracts to pay for government expenses. He also opposed the quite common concept of majority rule. As for democracy, he believed that a democratic system also required the consent of the minority, and the majority must also abide by the limitations of natural law that apply to all individuals and cannot use coercive power: "No matter the majority No matter how many factions there are, or how many people sign a constitutional contract with the government, as long as they damage or infringe on anyone, the government's contract is absolutely illegal and invalid."
Spooner is like. Other individual anarchists generally place great emphasis on private property rights. He wrote: “…the principle of individual property…claims the absolute right of every man to have dominion over the products of his own labor, independent of the influence of any other.” He added two ways in which private property is formed: “First, Just simply take possession of natural resources or products produced by nature; secondly, produce other wealth through artificial means."
He argued that it is not enough to just take natural resources, a person must use them. Only when his own labor is mixed in will it become his private property. In his view, land can also become private property through labor: "Before a person can claim possession of certain natural resources on the earth, he must first possess them. The act of possession can turn it into his own property. He must possess a piece of land before he can make it his property, harvest the harvest from that land, and settle on that land.
Unlike Tucker, Spooner did not have "possession and use" restrictions on land - he believed that as long as the land is mixed with a person's labor, property rights will arise, and even if it is not used, the rights will still continue.
He claimed that natural resources can only become his private property after his labor, and thus overcome "primitive wilderness". He said: "Natural resources can only be transformed into his private property. The way it is used to benefit mankind is to be appropriated by individuals and therefore becomes their private property. Unlike Tucker, Spooner supports intellectual property rights and believes that concepts conceived by individuals should be considered their private property. "It is entirely up to an author to disseminate his concepts," he said. His personal decision. "
Spooner was not opposed to charging interest rates, but he believed that the high interest rates at that time were caused by government restrictions on opening banks. He said: "A person borrows capital and mixes it with labor. his natural right, and all statutes limiting the rate of interest are arbitrary and despotic. "Spooner believes that the government's legal restrictions on interest rates will hinder those who do not have many channels to obtain capital, because lenders are restricted by the law and will not be able to compensate for higher risks by raising interest rates. Spooner was also not opposed to the mechanism of hire/employment: "If the laborer takes possession of the stone, the timber, the iron, the wool, and the cotton, and mixes it with it. labor, then he can legitimately own the value of his additional labor for these items. But if he does not own these objects, but he mixes his labor with these objects, then he cannot appropriate the additional labor value of these objects, but must sell his labor value to the owners of these objects. However, Spooner did encourage individuals to develop their own businesses without relying on employers for wages. At the same time, he believed that if capital could be exempted from government restrictions, then "anyone with the ability to borrow capital and People who start their own businesses will no longer be willing to work for others for wages. ”
One of Spooner’s most famous deeds was his challenge to the government’s postal monopoly. The interest rates of the U.S. Post Office were extremely high in the 1840s, so in 1844, Spooner founded the United States Postal Letter Company ( American Letter Mail Company), fighting the monopoly of the United States Postal Service (USPS) by offering lower rates and cheaper stamps. Although Spooner's postal company ultimately achieved commercial victory, the government maintained coercion. Benjamin Tucker called Spooner "the greatest contribution to human political and philosophical wisdom." one of the people. ” Traditional individual anarchism, which originated in the 19th century, is usually opposed to profit and is also opposed to so-called “capitalism”. However, anarcho-capitalism that is not opposed to profit is still regarded by some as a part of individual anarchism. For example, the contemporary anti-capitalist individualist Joe Peacott claims that individual anarchism is anti-capitalist and contrasts it with anarcho-capitalism. Without denying that anarcho-capitalists are part of individual anarchists, he also calls them "capitalist anarchists" and "individualists". Individualist Larry Gambone believes that anarchism itself is incompatible with capitalism. Indeed, Gambone points out: “For anarchists, capitalism is the result of state production, and therefore, all capitalism refers to – state capitalism. ".
However, Gambone pointed out that this definition also has its problems. He said that when "classical anarchists" refer to capitalists, they usually refer to "those who obtain wealth by manipulating government power to obtain government privileges." Free market libertarians refer to capitalism as supporting "free trade" and opposing "collusion between politics and business." He says that the mercantilism that libertarians vigorously oppose is actually the "capitalism" of classical anarchists. . Therefore, anarcho-capitalists will inevitably oppose what classical anarchists call “capitalism”. Additionally, individualist Wendy Moeloi says that when traditional individualists refer to the word "capitalism," they "are referring to state capitalism—collusion between the state and corporations." .