Destroying Social Cooperation

Help me if you can I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate your being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me
--The Beatles

Gary Galles describes how a primary consequence of State action is the destruction of social cooperation.

Social cooperation is a natural condition of a free society. To advance their interests, individuals engage in exchange with others. Cooperation with others expands over time because producers have increasing incentive to improve their output to better accommodate the needs of buyers.

When government intervenes in voluntary exchange, it erodes propensity for cooperation. If, for example, production is taxed, then producers are motivated to do spend less timing thinking about how to benefit others while spending more time thinking about how to avoid taxes.

The more government intervenes, the more people go into self-defense mode in order to protect their interests against aggression by the State.

Social cooperation declines as does standard of living in kind.