I am extremely grateful to Wisniewski (2010) for his critique of my published views on the ethics of abortion. One of the worst fates for one’s intellectual children (one’s publications) is that they be ignored. Far better to have them criticized than to meet that fate. Wisniewski (2010) demonstrates, at least, that my perspective on this vitally important issue does not go unrecognized. But more.
Block (2010) is an attempt to apply libertarian private property and homesteading principles to the very vexing question of stem cell research. Should fertilized eggs be allowed to be destroyed during the process of subjecting them to research? I posit that these early stage fetuses are human beings, thus bearers of all rights, certainly including the libertarian right not to be aggressed against. How, then, can it possibly justified to engage in physical violence against them?
The essence of libertarianism is its nonaggression principle. In order to determine whether some act or concept or institution is compatible with this philosophy, one may use this as a sort of litmus test. If you initiate violence against someone, you must pay the penalty for so doing, and, are presumptively acting outside of libertarian law.
William Barnett II Subjective Cost Revisited
In the past few years, there has been a remarkable revival of academic interest in the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises’s pioneering and incisive critique of the rationality of economic calculation under socialism. An entire issue of the Journal of Libertarian Studies was devoted to the subject. Other journals have included articles by Karen I.
In this article, I shall consider the nature and consequences of labor-union activities. There are various useful services that unions perform, but my interest will be solely with the social effects of privately exercised coercive power as a means to secure some of their main objectives (e.g., an increase in the remuneration of a particular group of workers).
During the past decade a significant change has occurred in the kinds of questions explored by monetary economists. Heretofore, one of the central issues concerned the “rules versus discretion” debate of a central bank empowered monopolistically to supply base money. However, with the publication of studies by Klein (1974), Thompson (1974), and Hayek (1976/1978), the range of alternatives expanded to include the possibility of regimes based on the private provision of inconvertible media of exchange.
