I'm reading Ludwig Von Mises's book Liberalism and I want for you to see what I saw here at this chapter: http://mises.org/liberal/ch1sec7.asp. In it he argues that government coercion is okay for dealing with anti social people. So people who contribute to society are okay. I get that. But to him it's okay to use government coercion against people who are anti social and are problematic to society? I'm sorry but doesn't that go against everything he says? I just want to know what others think about this... I'm just shocked that he would be in favor of such a thing. I posted this in the newbies forum since I feel totally confused and now I don't really know what to think about him. Could someone clear it up for me?
Anti social is a common term for the violent/thief like profile. It can be used in other contexts but in Mises context it means someone who does not respect property or life.
The context of the society he is talking about is libertarian and hence in a libertarian society violence is anti social and is not allowed. Violence is nearly universal in it's uncooperative, anti social nature.
By anti-social, he does not mean people who do not contribute to society; he means people who assault society by, themselves, using coercion. Later on in that section, he is more specific about what he means by "anti-social":
"One must be in a position to compel the person who will not respect the lives, health, personal freedom, or private property of others to acquiesce in the rules of life in society."
I would be surprised to find a single libertarian who would take issue with that sentence.
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For further clarification when Mises uses the term sacrifice he is meaning someone who restrains themself. He is not talking in a Randian fashion.
Okay. I thought that he was arguing in favor of conservative values (restrict people who contribute nothing to society). Okay. I see where he's coming from now. Thanks for clearing that up... I didn't get what he was trying to say. For a second I thought he was arguing to restrict people who were not sociable and just did nothing and did drugs and did alcohol and those kinds of things.
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