In his seminal work, “The Problem of Social Cost,” Coase held that in cases of private property right disputes involving what have been called externalities, “with costless market transactions, the decision of the courts concerning liability for damage would be without effect on the allocation of resources.” I shall try to show that this view is
There are two views of monopoly within what might be called the broad Austrian camp. According to the Mises-Kirzner view, monopoly price can exist on the free market, and a necessary part of its definition is a purposeful withholding of resources on the part of the monopolist. Rothbard, however, defines monopoly as an exclusive government grant of
A basic principle of Austrian economics is that the originary rate of interest (the rate of discount of future goods compared to present, otherwise identical, goods) can never be negative. The reason for this arises not because capital is productive, nor out of man’s psychology. Nevertheless, in spite of the foregoing, there are many benighted
Were a government to demand the sacrifice of 46,700 citizens’ each year, there is no doubt that an outraged public would revolt. If an organized religion were to plan the immolation of 523,335 of the faithful in a decade,’ there is no question that it would be toppled. Were there a Manson-type cult that murdered 790 people to celebrate Memorial
The present paper defends the position of libertarian centrism, or libertarian purity (Gregory 2006), or plumb line libertarianism, vis-a-vis its two competitors for the libertarian mantle: left wing libertarianism and right wing libertarianism (Read 1998). Volume 22, Number 1 (2010) Block, Walter. “Libertarianism is Unique and Belongs Neither
The case of Terri Schiavo is almost as controversial as it is tragic. In 1990 Mrs. Schiavo, who reached her 40th year in 2005, fell victim to brain damage. She has been in a vegetative state ever since, kept alive not under her own power, but aided by a welter of feeding tubes and other paraphernalia of modern medicine. The controversy? Her
Did you ever hear the phrase, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” This aphorism applies to several “defenses” of the free enterprise system we could all richly do without. In section one we consider an invalid argument for legalizing addictive drugs. Section two is given over to an analysis of foreign aid, from this perspective. The
Libertarianism has been widely misunderstood, and the present essay under review is no exception. Libertarianism is a political philosophy, not a philosophy of life. It essentially asks but one single solitary question, and gives one single, solitary answer. The question: under what conditions is the use of force or violence legally justified? And
Although the present paper is dedicated to a highly critical examination of Hoppe’s contributions to the field of immigration, we readily acknowledge at the outset that here, too, even though we cannot see our way clear to agreeing with his conclusions, his splendid, imaginative, and ingenious “footprints” can readily be seen. Volume 21, Number 3
Holcombe (2004) argued that government was inevitable. In Block (2005) I maintained that this institution was not unavoidable. Holcombe (2007) takes issue with that response of mine to his earlier paper, and the present essay is, in turn, a response to his latest missive in this conversation. Volume 21, Number 1 (2007) Block, Walter. “Rejoinder
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.