[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable . An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] “Xerox 57 3/8 — up 1/8, Texas Instrument 92 — up 2, Sun Oil preferred 31 — down a quarter, New York City Taxi Medallions $96,090 — up $245.00.” The taxi business in the United States usually works to the detriment
[ Libertarianism Today • By Jacob H. Huebert • Praeger, 2010 • 224 pages] “A consistent, uncompromising libertarianism is defended throughout this book. “ It has gotten to the point, nowadays, that whenever I see a new book out with “libertarian” or “libertarianism” in the title, I cringe. It is not because I don’t think that on net balance, they
[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable . An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] “Hey, Bozo, you want a citation for litterin’? Pick up that matchbook cover!” The litterer today will find few defenders. He is beset on all sides, bearing the brunt of the barbs of do-gooder groups. Radio and
[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable .] “This is my kid, Mr. T. He’ll be blackmailing you from now on — I’m retiring to Florida.” At first glance it is not hard to answer the question, “Is blackmail really illegitimate?” The only problem it would seem to pose is, “Why is it being asked at all?” Do not blackmailers, well, blackmail people?
[ The Case for Discrimination • By Walter Block • Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010 • xi + 497 pages] In the days of yore, to say that a man was discriminating was to pay him a compliment. It meant that he had taste: he could distinguish between the poor, the mediocre, the good, and the excellent. His ability to make fine distinctions enabled him
[ I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians • By Walter Block • Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010 • x + 398 pages] Why is it important that we Austrolibertarians have a book of autobiographies, such as this present one? (Yes, yes, I know, Austrian economics is a positive science, while libertarianism is a normative discipline.
[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable (1976; 2008). An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] Advertising has long had a “bad press.” The case against it is detailed and seemingly compelling. It is claimed that advertising entices people, forcing them to buy products they would otherwise not buy.
Pundits are accustomed to utilizing the language of war and strife to depict economic relationships. This is confusing, irrational and misleading. For the dismal science addresses mutual benefit, or positive-sum games. All participants gain whenever a trade, a purchase, sale, rental agreement, job, etc., gets consummated; necessarily so in the ex
[Walter Block will be presenting the webinar How to End Unemployment in One Day Friday, January 27, 2012 at 7 p.m. EST.] How could unemployment be ended in one day? The short answer is, Pass a law making unemployment illegal, punishable by the death penalty; that will reduce unemployment to zero, heck, not in one day, but in one second. Who would
[Walter Block will be teaching a 6-week online course on his classic work, Defending the Undefendable , starting March 26, 2012. Enroll today. ] At first glance it is not hard to answer the question, “Is blackmail really illegitimate?” The only problem it would seem to pose is, “Why is it being asked at all?” Do not blackmailers, well, blackmail
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.
