Obviously the word [mercantilism] can only be used within strict limitations, but, alien as the conception of a national economy still was to the governments of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, it is plain from their conduct that they desired to protect the industry and commerce of their subjects against foreign competition, and even, here and there, to introduce new forms of activity into their countries.
Sadly, the Federal Minimum Wage Act of 2007 and the proposed Free of Fees for Carry-On Act are but two of a myriad of examples of how legislators exploit private business in the name of protecting their constituents.
Freethought, de Cleyre wrote, was "the right to believe as the evidence, coming in contact with the mind, forces it to believe. This implies the admission of any and all evidence bearing upon any subject."
"Most of the essays in this book imagine radical new possibilities of living outside the status quo. Or perhaps we should say statist quo…"
Who then will bear witness in court? Whoever wishes to do so, freely and voluntarily.
Reading groups can use Mises.org to provide most of the necessary resources free of charge — or at worst for relatively little cost — while they spread libertarianism to people that would have otherwise not stumbled upon it by surfing the Internet.
"Fulfilling the doctrine of the 'invisible hand,' the speculator, by his profit-seeking activity, causes more food to be stored during years of plenty than otherwise would have been the case, thereby lessening the effects of the lean years to come."
"Instead of spending time on adapting their product to the desires of consumers, homebuilders are busy adapting their homes to the code. Innovation is the victim."
It is natural to wonder what scholar today has inherited the mantle of Rothbard. To me this is the wrong way to look at it. Rothbard vastly broadened that mantle so that hundreds, thousands, and millions of people can wear it.
Not only have they been mobilized for libertarian action and educated in libertarian ideas, including opposition to the public schools and the idea that taxation is theft, but the politicians have begun to knuckle under to their vociferous demands and actions.
