He offers a Kantian justification for political economy in the style of Buchanan; and he maintains that this view of things is at the root of the American Republic. Readers of a libertarian bent will not be fully satisfied; but Roth's carefully argued book deserves, and rewards, close study.
The abstraction called the "ecosystem" — which never seems to include mankind or civilization — has done far less for us than the oil industry, and the factories, planes, trains, and automobiles it fuels.
The constitutional arrangement is far from perfect. But, at least if its provisions are obeyed, there is a barrier imposed on arbitrary and secret rule by one person.
"I contend that Professor King is a utilitarian rather than a natural-rights theorist."
"The essence of 'immediate convertibility' is the difference between what Austrians call a claim transaction or warehouse receipt, like a demand deposit, and a credit transaction, like a time deposit."
Like school vouchers, the flat tax, and other pretenders, the AFV assumes the necessity of state intervention and tries to bend liberty around such strictures.
The way to stop the brain and capital drain is readily at hand. Relinquish controls. Stop taxing people abroad. Adopt laissez-faire. Reinstitute freedom. Reject militarism and nationalism.
The inherent risk of the marketplace does not establish the marketplace as something that needs to be regulated and harnessed. On the contrary, inherent risk defines the market.
The recent actions by the preservation commission against a private-property owner are nothing less than aggressive theft by a third party.
True political liberty demands many and severe restraints; it requires protection against itself, and is no longer safe when it refuses to submit to its own self-imposed discipline.
