Laurence M. Vance

Articles

02/05/2026 Power & Market Laurence M. Vance

If there is one thing that shows that Americans live in a nanny state it is the maze of alcohol laws, rules, and regulations that exist in every state.

Conservatives Are Incorrigible Drug Warriors

01/20/2026 Power & Market Laurence M. Vance

Forget everything that conservatives say about individual liberty, personal freedom, property rights, the Constitution, federalism, capitalism, limited government, the free market, and free enterprise. They don’t mean a word of it because they are such incorrigible drug warriors.

Why Are Some Libertarians So Concerned about Tax Loopholes?

08/19/2025 Power & Market Laurence M. Vance

The passage of Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” has once again raised the issue of tax loopholes. Murray Rothbard referred to the idea of a tax loophole that needs to be closed as a great economic myth.

Publications

The War on Drugs Is a War on Freedom

01/11/2016 Laurence M. Vance

Alcohol abuse and heavy tobacco use are two of the leading causes of death in the United States. It seems rather ludicrous to advocate the outlawing of drugs and not the outlawing of alcohol and tobacco. (p. 11) Vance writes from a viewpoint that

War, Christianity, and the State

01/11/2016 Laurence M. Vance

These seventy-six essays, organized under the headings of Christianity and War, Christianity and the Military, Christianity and the Warfare State, and Christianity and Torture, have one underlying theme: the relation of Christianity to war, the

War, Empire, and the Military

01/11/2016 Laurence M. Vance

With War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Police, Laurence Vance, a relentless critic of the state and its wars, has updated his already extensive writings on war and empire to include new material in this

Media

The Fair Tax Is the Tax That Will Not Die

06/16/2022 Laurence M. Vance

The Fair Tax is a supposed alternative to the income tax. But the name does not matter, since a tax is still a tax.

Happy Hour May Be Getting a Little Happier

08/30/2021 Laurence M. Vance

Eleven states ban happy hour. These laws restrict the sale of alcohol at discounted prices during specially designated times. Unfortunately, many citizens regard these backdoor price controls as perfectly legit.

Free the Liquor Stores!

06/09/2020 Laurence M. Vance

Free the liquor stores to sell what products they want, what days of the week they want, what hours they want, and to whom they want.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.