Stop Fighting Your Neighbor: The Mechanics of State Power and How to Opt Out
“The State is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”—Frédéric Bastiat
“The State is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”—Frédéric Bastiat
Professor Clyde Wilson’s observation that “history is not a mathematical calculation or scientific experiment but a vast drama of which there is always more to be learned” has important methodological implications. First, it implies that formal academic history credentials, while valuable, are not a necessary precondition for understanding history.
Brazil is often described as a constitutional democracy with a market economy: You can buy a home, start a business, sign contracts, and sue in court. Yet many Brazilians live with a quieter reality: ownership feels fragile. Property exists, but it comes with an asterisk. The rules say you have a right, then add conditions that let politics rewrite that right whenever it becomes inconvenient.
Javier Milei’s Davos speech marks a decisive break with a dominant political mindset: the belief that upholding and expanding political power justifies moral compromise and that political authority should be judged primarily by effectiveness rather than legitimacy.
[Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society by Robert J. Barro (The MIT Press, 1996; x + 191pp.)]
In today’s divided political landscape, opinions on the actions of ICE agents in Minnesota are sharply split. However, turning to the insights of Murray Rothbard offers a thoughtful and critical perspective. Although Rothbard never encountered ICE agents during his lifetime, his writings suggest he would likely criticize the violent actions of these agents in Minnesota.