A growing chorus of technologists and futurists now argue that scarcity is ending. Artificial intelligence will automate cognition. Robotics will automate labor. Energy capture will scale beyond planetary limits. Manufacturing will approach zero marginal cost. In this telling, the central economic problem that has defined human civilization for millennia is dissolving.
Over the weekend, the US and Israeli governments attacked Iran. In the days since, both militaries have reportedly struck thousands of targets, and Iranian forces have retaliated by launching hundreds or even thousands of missiles and drones at Israel and at US bases in surrounding Gulf countries.
“While the Trump administration is calling for tanker protection, the U.S. Navy told shipping industry leaders that the sea service does not have naval availability to provide escorts.”
The Trump administration has unilaterally—without any Congressional debate or vote, of course—forced Americans into yet another war. This time, the war is a large-scale military campaign against Iran. Was there any groundswell of public support for this war? Did the Congress vote to spend more American tax dollars on another war? Apparently not. According to a March 1 poll from Reuters, only 27 percent of Americans polled said they support the US’s new war on Iran.
It has become fashionable to believe that inequality and “extreme” wealth compromise democracy, and that, consequently, taxes on high incomes and wealth must be increased even further. Several left-oriented economists (such as Krugman, Stiglitz, and Zucman) and political and social leaders have endorsed this idea, which easily resonates with citizens burdened by stagnant real wages in societies sclerotized by state interventionism and excessive regulation.
[This is the introduction to Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard, first published in 1988.]
Murray N. Rothbard is a scholar of unique, indeed monumental achievements: the founder of the first fully-integrated science of liberty.
“Crude oil benchmarks rose more than $4 on Tuesday, soaring for a third session as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran widens...”
“Mr Rubio said President Donald Trump was forced into a preemptive response after learning of an imminent Israeli attack.”
