Man has tried to improve his condition since the beginning of time.  There may be romantic stories about plenty and peace in the past, but those are just fables.  Man will want more of something.  The primary method of attaining more goods was just to take them.  Eventually, man realized free labor is more productive than isolated or unfree labor.  The quantity of goods and the quality of life can only increase with peaceful cooperation.

Each was the rival of the other prior to cooperation.  If two individuals wanted the same good, they must clash.  Each can produce and trade for what they need.  There’s no need for belligerent behavior.  Conflicts have been minimized as a result.  The energy each has is used for production.  This is much preferred to each using his energy to annihilate all competitors.  The “war of all against all” only exists without cooperation.

The origin of peace goes hand in hand with the division of labor.  There is a harmony of interests rather than having conflicting interests.  Once there is division of labor, goods aren’t distributed.  Each produces and trades for what he needs.  There’s not an overlord to take goods and distribute them to other voters.  If an overlord is distributing, that means that the goods were taken from those who produced.

The state is the antithesis of peaceful cooperation.  An overlord taking goods and giving them to others might give them more in the short term.  The fact that the original producers were stolen from should not be overlooked.  If the original producer knows he will have goods stolen, he will begin to produce less.  The overlord will have less and less to steal from as time goes by.  The recipient will be worse off in the long run.

The saying: kill the goose that lays the golden egg; is extremely accurate in this situation.  Many naïvely assume the goose will continue to lay a golden egg forever.   There isn’t a harmony of interest until there is cooperation.  The state disrupts that harmony.  We can only have peace if we have division of labor.  Not the division of labor for some and not the overlords.  Labor is disordered under them, in turn, civilization is destroyed.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; Human Action