Just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn.
Life in a stateless society will sometimes be bad, because not only are people not angels, but many of them are irredeemably vicious. But the outcome in a society under a state will be much worse.
If we were to award a prize for “brilliancy” in the history of economic thought, it would surely go to Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, the
The technique of the historicists’ indictment of capitalism is simple indeed.
Recorded at the Ludwig von Mises Institute; Auburn, Alabama; 9 October 2010.
Jeffrey Tucker interviews Stephan Kinsella, instructor of the Mises Academy’s forthcoming course, “Rethinking Intellectual Property: Hi
Recorded at the Ludwig von Mises Institute; Auburn, Alabama; 8 October 2010.
Modern economics traces all human actions back to the value judgments of individuals.
How often do you hear the minarchist say, "Well, I don't like government, but we at least need things like traffic laws. We need a government to keep us safe"? What if we actually began to publicly advocate the abolition of traffic regulations?
The Tea Party, no matter how successful it is at the polls in November, will certainly betray the party of liberty. There are several reasons for this, but the fundamental one is intellectual. The Tea Party does not have a coherent view of liberty.
