Thus, without even entering into the question of the world economy's ultimate dictation of everybody's productive activity, it's apparent that the source of the greatest direct duress experienced by the ordinary adult is not the state but rather the business that employs him. If one looks at the world without prejudice but with an eye to maximizing freedom, the major coercive institution is not the state, it's work. Libertarians who with a straight face call for the abolition of the state nonetheless look on anti-work attitudes with horror. The idea of abolishing work is, of course, an affront to common sense. But then so is the idea of abolishing the state.
Libertarians are into linear reasoning and quantitative analysis.
If they applied these methods to test their own reasoning they'd be in for a shock. That's the point of my Martian thought experiment. This is not to say that the state isn't just as unsavory as the Libertarians say it is. But it does suggest that the state is important, not so much for the direct duress it inflicts on convicts and conscripts, for instance, as for its indirect back-up of employers who regiment employees, shopkeepers who arrest shoplifters, and parents who paternalize children. In these classrooms, the lesson of submission is learned.