In “ Why The State is Different “, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. says: “ the state is the only institution in society that can impose itself on all of society without asking the permission of anyone in particular. You can’t opt out. “ This brings up a point that can be problematic to the unprepared libertarian. Statists assert that you can opt out
In this post , K. Chris Caldwell discussed a censorship law which forces ISP’s to block access to IP addresses because a website under that domain may contain child-pornography. This blocks access to thousands of unrelated websites, which are separate domains under the same IP address. Pensylvania attempted to justify this, saying that
As the Michigan battle over affirmative action heats up, and issues of race and sex politics continue to play a huge role in academia, a larger issue is being lost. A core assumption behind “affirmative action” and “equal opportunity” is that individuals have property rights in their jobs, or the right to at least be considered for their jobs.
With reference to “ In Defense of Scrooge ,” there is more to say. Contrary to the implication of Dickens’s story, it is doubtful that anything a rich man does with his money can harm the poor, unless he uses it to pay for the initiation of violence. If he stores all of his money under his bed for his entire life, then it’s just that much money
The IRS is closing a “loophole” that’s allowed individuals to avoid government-theft. Also see this article . A Roth IRA is a retirement account that allows individuals to avoid being stolen from twice by the government. When you put money into a Roth IRA, you are taxed an initial income tax, but you are not taxed on the growth of the money
Both Austrian economics and Georgist economics stem from studying the nature of man, from individual actions, from praxeology. However, they arrive at different conclusions regarding the cause of the business cycle. Both the geolibertarians (Georgists) and the Austrian libertarians start from the same axiom of self-ownership, yet arrive at
Jean Chatzky has writen an article explaining how to ge the best financing on your auto-loan . She discusses how to avoid or reduce the markup car dealers will tack on to your auto-loan base rate. Markups average about 3 percentage points extra per consumer. Despite the fact that consumers have the option to shop around, secure a loan in advance,
Ilana Mercer has written an interesting, article, The criminal’s theoretical enablers . In it, she argues against the left-libertarian notion that punishment should be abolished in favor of restitution. She argues, rather, that restitution should supplement punishment. I would argue that, in reality, it should be the other way around: punishment
The debate between “PCR” (Paul Craig Roberts) and others underscores the fatal problem among libertarians of relying too heavily on Utilitarian arguments. Outside of the fatal problem of relying too heavily on Utilitarianism, there is also the strategical problem. As Rothbard once said, “the young kids out there are not going to be willing to go
I think that anarcho-capitalists, libertarians, and Austrian economists should be interested in Free Software (FS) and Open Source Software (OSS) . I believe there is much to gain from studying FS and OSS. It would allow us to bring computer-oriented individuals into the larger picture of a free society overall. The Free Software movement started
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.