Defending the Undefendable II

Freedom in All Realms

Walter Block

Cartoon Illustrator: Charles Rodrigues

First edition, hardback, published in UK and USA 2013, by Terra Libertas Publishing House, Chantry House, 22 Upperton Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 1BF, United Kingdom

Reprinted in 2019 by the Mises Institute with permission of Terra Publishing House.

Mises Institute

518 West Magnolia Ave.

Auburn, Alabama, U.S.A.

mises.org

ISBN: 978-1-61016-692-8 (paperback edition)

ISBN: 978-1-61016-718-5 (ebook)

Ebook designed by Mike Dworski

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to those who have been most influential in my recent thinking about issues of political economy: William Barnett, Lipa Dubrawsky, Michael Edelstein, Stephan Kinsella, and Hans Hoppe.

FOREWORD

It is a pleasure to introduce Defending the Undefendable II: Freedom in All Realms, the latest book by my friend, Dr. Walter Block. This book is a sequel to Dr. Block’s seminal 1976 work Defending the Undefendable.

INTRODUCTION

In 1974, when I began putting together the collection of iconoclastic essays that eventually came to be known as Defending the Undefendable (1976 Fleet, 1991 Fox and Wilkes, 2008 Mises Institute, 2013 Terra Libertas), my purpose was simple and easily stated. It was to promote an appreciation of libertarianism by applying it to the “hard” cases.

1.

THE MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISER

As never before, multinational corporations are under attack both at home and abroad. Foreign host governments have imposed a panoply of restrictions including export and import quotas, limitations on remittance of profits, convertibility controls, demands for participation in management, requirements that foreign nationals be hired, and mandatory reinvestment of earnings. Lurking in the background is the ever-present threat of nationalization and expropriation—with inadequate compensation, of course.

2.

THE SMUGGLER

A smuggler is a person who imports goods without paying the taxes (usually known as customs duties or tariffs) imposed on these goods by government. He also transfers goods whose importation or exportation has been forbidden entirely by government.

But ought government to be prohibiting any sort of international trade? Should the state impose any sorts of taxes on the goods that cross national boundaries?