Philosophy and Methodology
A Puzzle about Mises and Conscription
Not only are conscripts enslaved, often under brutal conditions, they can be sent to die in battle. Mises opposed conscription, but there was an exception.
Beyond the NAP: Rothbard’s Full Case for Liberty
The nonaggression principle—"anything peaceful"—comes as close to a value-free analysis in a political, ethical, economic, and legal theory as conceivably possible. It was insufficient for Rothbard, because he rightly found it insufficient for liberty.
Equality and Levelling Down
Egalitarians think that equality has intrinsic value: they advocate it for its own sake, not just to forestall bad consequences. But why is a situation in which some in it have been made better off, and none worse off, worse than one of equality?
COVID-19: The “Experts” Have No Crystal Ball
The 2016 election was an important reminder that most experts were totally wrong in their predictions of what would happen. Now the experts are claiming that freedom and markets must be abandoned based on new guesses about the future.
Fail: Quantitative Methods Presume That Human Action Is Reflexive
Quantitative methods can't be applied to human action, which is purposeful and not a mere reflex. For this reason, mathematical formulas can only describe events, never explain them.
A Fallacy about Negative Externalities
Some people use the concept of negative externalities to argue for government to force people toward "what is best for them." An example of this is the call for a consumption tax.
Even When They’re Wrong, We Can Learn From Understanding Others’ Theories
Learning the history of economic thought is important not because every economist has been right, but because we can learn from their mistakes.
Logic and the Disutility of Labor
Choosing between labor and leisure is not like choosing between apples and oranges. Many people like both kinds of fruit. But labor involves disutility, so a better choice is this: between apples and rotten oranges.
The Myth of National Guilt
If we insist on "collective" responsibility assigned to entire nations, then we must naturally punish the innocent along with the guilty.