Distracted wrote:I don't think it really matters one way or another to the drive to meet human needs whether those goods come form the government or the private sector.
From the narrow, selfish and short-term perspective of those receiving the goods, you are obviously right.
You correctly identify culture as a major factor.
Pensioners today are culturally-conditioned to view the ballot box as a legitimate means for satisfying their needs. They are equally culturally-conditioned to view using guns to rob banks as an illegitimate means of satisfying those same needs.
Thus viewed from a human needs perspective, culture can readily shape which means are considered legitimate and which are not for achieving a set of needs. When needs become sufficiently dire (and depending on both culture and personality), individuals and groups may well rebel against those cultural constraints. In such cases, the behaviour would be considered illegal and/or illegitimate, though possibly only one and not the other (e.g. illegal but legitimate, as when a starving person steals a loaf of bread)
The democratic system provides no more guarantee that unsatisfied needs do not push people into illegal activity than do other systems, particularly the NAP-based one I am advocating.
From a dispassionate perspective, it is easy to see the similarities between voting and bank robbing. Both ultimately result in the initiation of force against those who have property one desires. The only difference is that the former enjoys a veneer of legitimacy in our society, while the latter does not.
What I fail to see is a cogent argument for why, having eliminated most forms of initiation of force from the being considered legitimate, we couldn't take the last step, and reject political initiation of force from being considered legitimate as well.
The range of options available for people to satisfy their needs isn't going to shrink - quite the contrary. While voting/lobbying will be eliminated, a huge range of options currently outlawed through regulatory fiat will open up to those seeking avenues to improve their conditions.
The transition will block some forms of action from being considered legitimate, while opening others. In general, forms of action that will be opened are once consistent with greater personal autonomy and self-realisation.
Free men are not equal and equal men are not free.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.