Three Cheers For Capital One

by Joshua Holmes

Okay, so I haven't read enough Austrian economics to know if credit cards are inherently evil or not. And since I plan on living in normal society instead of eating out of garbage cans and telling people I'm Frank Libertus (hey, Doing Freedom guys), I have a credit card. Specifically, I have one from Capital One Bank. 

Recently, I received a letter notifying me that they were adding a provision to my credit card agreement. While I'm normally wary of anything being added to an agreement I've read and signed, this was a rather encouraging sign: 

The Arbitration Provision states that either you or we can require that any claim (as described in the Arbitration Provision) be resolved by binding arbitration rather than in a court by a judge or a jury.

I consider it an encouraging sign that one of the largest credit card companies in the country has decided that private, binding arbitration is a viable and recognizable alternative to the coercive structures of the state. Now, I'm not crazy enough to suggest that Capital One Bank is now run by anarcho-capitalists, or even libertarians, but when a company realizes the need to include a non-coercive option in their disagreements, it's a good sign for us indeed.

As many people have argued, anarcho-capitalists must begin to implement the structures that parallel the state and provide services for profit that are as good, if not wildly superior, to the state's services itself. Arbitration is a fine way for those of us who reject coercion as a means of dealing with people to resolve disputes. In fact, arbitration courts are really the free market courts that free market anarchist theorists suggest would develop in a society without a government.

Now, I hope never have to deal with the credit card company in any dispute. I would prefer not to have to spend my time fighting with them (and since my credit limit is laughably small, I doubt they even realize I exist). But if the need arises, you can bet I will choose arbitration over the state every time. Three cheers for Capital One Bank!

November 14, 2001