In the lively words of Hans-Hermann Hoppe: To the extent that
intellectuals have deemed it necessary to argue in favor of the
state at all, their most popular argument, encountered already
at kindergarten age, runs like this: Some activities of the
state are pointed out: the state builds roads, kindergartens,
schools; it delivers the mail and puts the policeman on the
street. Imagine, there would be no state. Then we would not have
these goods. Thus, the state is necessary. At the university
level, a slightly more sophisticated version of the same
argument is presented. It goes like this: True, markets are best
at providing many or even most things; but there are other goods
markets cannot provide or cannot provide in sufficient quantity
or quality. These other, so-called public goods are goods which
bestow benefits onto people beyond those actually having
produced or paid for them. Foremost among such goods rank
typically education and research. Education and research, for
instance, it is argued, are extreme