Rome wasn't a state, and it lasted for many centuries. Don't try to pretend by "doesn't work for long" you were talking about geological time or something
They did end up saying AnCapism or Minarchism would be better than current regulated Capitalism. I mean, if that happened to the US Imperialism would be kneecapped, so I suppose that would technically be better for most people.
I'm saying this unironically: this comment could go on any dumbass thread about China's dumbass social media and dumbass AI. I don't understand why I don't see it more.
The reason you don't see it more is because "authoritarian" isn't a hard line you can cross, but a general descriptor, and as a consequence many will disagree about the legitimacy of that vague descriptor or believe other countries like the US fit that descriptor better. What do you personally think counts as sufficient to label one country authoritarian, and another not? Can you give an example of each, or is every country authoritarian? Does it matter if some are more or less authoritarian? All of these questions have different answers from person to person, because they apply to a general descriptor and not a hard metric, like "does the PRC have growing wages for the working class?" Or "do Chinese people enioy their system?" Food for thought.