Distinguishing Liberty from Slavery

At its heart, liberty means renouncing the use of coercion against others. That is why those who would employ coercion against others must invent arguments to defend their actions as consistent with liberty. That is also why slavery — the opposite of liberty — is a useful touchstone in evaluating defenses that coercion is consistent with liberty, when it always increases the enslavement of someone.

What If Public Schools Were Abolished?

There are decent public schools and terrible ones, so there is no use generalizing. Nor is there a need to trot out data on test scores. Let me just deal with economics. All studies have shown that average cost per pupil for public schools is twice that of private schools. if we could abolish public schools and compulsory schooling laws, and replace it all with market-provided education, we would have better schools at half the price, and be freer too. We would also be a more just society, with only the customers of education bearing the costs.

Great Search for the Mises Institute!

March was a record-breaking month for the Mises Institute and goodsearch.com. Your 1430 searches and $12.25 good shopping led to an all-time high monthly donation of $26.55. So far in less than two years your quick searches and shopping has resulted in $181.58 donated to the Mises Institute. Keep up the great work! Thank you. Postscript: To begin to good search for LVMI just type “mises” in the “Who do you goodsearch for?” field.

Myths About The Monetary Base And Bank Reserves

One of the hottest (if not the hottest) intra-Austrian debates today is between what is sometimes referred to as deflationists and inflationists/stagflationists. This is not a policy debate of course, as all Austrians is anti-inflation, but rather a debate about whether the current recession will be associated with deflation or inflation. Examples of deflationists are Frank Shostak, Mike Shedlock and Gary North while examples of stagflationists include me, Antony Mueller and Peter Schiff. The dispute is largely originated in a dispute over the definition of the money supply.

A Real Pain in the Neck

My congressman, Pat Tiberi (R-OH), is a generous man, always on the lookout for ways to expand the realm of the federal government into ever aspect of life. He feels for his constituents -- like a lord tending to his serfs. However, tears in private settings do not deliver votes. So, in order to keep his seat of power, my lord pronounces his big heart and big initiatives on posts throughout his land. To that end, Tiberi sends out a regular email to his constituents.

Libertarian Creationism

I’ve noted many times that one fallacious line of reasoning in support of intellectual property is the idea that creation is an independent source of rights. I have begun to refer to this as “libertarian creationism.” I critique this notion, inherent in a recent paper by libertarian philosopher Tibor Machan, in the comments of this Objectivist blog.
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