Private Property

I was having an interesting discussion via email about one of Walter Block’s arguments. A quick summary.

Often, supporters of a complete free market must face the objection that, without government welfare, some people could not survive. The standard reply to this is that, in a free market, private charity would attend to these people. Lewis's ingenious idea gives us a way gradually to approach a fully private system.

The following is an edited version of my recent post on a libertarian discussion list.

Coasian ethics have come to roost in Ohio, or roast as the case may be (roasted soybeans in this instance).

Madison stated the historic fact: in democracy there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. There is no protection for liberty. Hence it is, that democracies always destroy personal security (the Gestapo, the concentration camps) and the rights of property (what rights of property ownership are there in Europe, now?) and are as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths.

The remains of the Roman Forum, Coliseum, and the palaces of Palatine Hill, are proof that empires fall, despite the wonders created by the political class in attempts to placate the masses. In addition, these sites show that every empire needs a war for victories, and enemies for threats. Sadly, we have not learned these lessons.

[This article is taken from chapter 19 of The Ethics of Liberty.

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Economic freedom in fact reduces unemployment to levels significantly below those in less free countries. The Amish may hold the secret to full employment, but rejection of modern capitalism is full employment in poverty and hardship, not the rich fruits of progress.

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.