Joshua Mawhorter

Joshua Mawhorter is assistant editor of Mises.org. He was a summer fellow at the Mises Institute (2023) and a government/economics and US history teacher since 2016. Josh has a bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, Bakersfield, a master’s in political science from Southern New Hampshire University, and a master’s in Austrian economics from the Mises Graduate School (2023). He has self-published a few books, including The First Constitution: The Articles of Confederation, Tyrannosaurus Debt: The Student Loan Crisis and How to Survive, and “An Austrian Critique of Modern Monetary Theory”, his thesis. He also enjoys teaching in the areas of theology, the Old Testament, church history, apologetics, and philosophy.

Articles

William Rawle and Secession

12/19/2024 Mises Wire Joshua Mawhorter

The issue of secession has been present in American history since the Declaration of Independence—itself an act of secession followed by a war for independence! The debate continued, involving...

Slavery—Cronyism, Opportunity Cost, & Deadweight Loss

12/13/2024 Mises Wire Joshua Mawhorter

Slavery has existed throughout history in all places and cultures. In fact, while the American South dubbed it the “peculiar institution,” historically, voluntary-free labor is the true peculiar...

Atomic Salvation: Did the Atom Bombs Save 500,000 to 32 Million Lives?

12/07/2024 Mises Wire Joshua Mawhorter

“I wanted to save a half million boys on our side.... I never lost any sleep over my decision.”—Harry Truman, (quoted in Alfred Steinberg, The Man From Missouri (New York, 1962), p. 259) It is...

Media

Understanding the Real Costs of Slavery: It’s Not Cheap labor

09/26/2024 Joshua Mawhorter

The standard belief is that slavery was about obtaining “cheap labor,“ yet nothing could be further from the truth. Slavery comes with high opportunity costs, which is why American slave owners depended upon several government regulations to subsidize their “peculiar institution.”

Governments Had a Major Role in Sustaining Slavery

09/19/2024 Joshua Mawhorter

Despite claims from progressive historians that US slavery was a natural outgrowth of a free market economy, the reality is that slavery would have been much costlier without governments—federal and state—subsidizing it. It is time to set the record straight.

How Government Propped Up Slavery

09/14/2024 Robert P. Murphy Joshua Mawhorter

Joshua Mawhorter argues that slavery persisted largely due to government intervention rather than free-market mechanisms.