“As a reflection of this fundamental realism—anti-utopianism—of his private-property anarchism, Rothbard, unlike most contemporary political philosophers, accorded central importance to the subject of punishment. For him, private property and the right to physical defense were inseparable. No one can be said to be the owner of something if he is not permitted to defend his property by physical violence against possible invaders and invasions.
In his current Bloomberg piece ( link below). Keynes’s biographer Robert Skidelsky tells us that the famous economist’s “notion of satiety” has been buried by the “Darwinian capitalism” unleashed by Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980′s, with its “ideological faith in the market system” and glorification of “untrammeled self-interest” as expressed through the “profit motive.” He further tells us that Keynes and other sensible earlier economists believed that “people would, and should as rational agents, work less and enjoy life more.”
“A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before....But, on the other hand, the government can bring about conditions which paralyze the efforts of a creative spirit and prevent him from rendering useful services to the community.”
—Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy
“The crucial monopoly is the State’s control of the use of violence: of the police and armed services, and of the courts—the locus of ultimate decision-making power in disputes over crimes and contracts.”
— Murray N. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty
Many states have laws on the books prohibiting anyone from making disparaging comments about a particular bank’s financial condition. This sort of talk is thought to be outside free speech because just the slightest rumor can trigger a bank run. Of course, not much of a line needs to develop at the teller window for bankers to get nervous, because they don’t keep much cash around to satisfy withdrawals. Depositor money is lent out or invested, or in the case of J.P. Morgan, used for speculating in London.
If you ever visited my part of the country, you would likely hear about a long-standing controversy over occupational taxes and the right of my state’s most populous county to impose them.
That state would be Alabama, and that county would be Jefferson County, established through violent, extramarket means in 1819 yet named for an antitax radical who eventually became the third president of the United States. Although Thomas Jefferson would die five years later, his eponymous county is still with us.
