Volume 1, Article 17 (2009) I. Introduction This paper is an attempt to apply a libertarian analysis of punishment to statist and state-like activities. It assumes, and is predicated upon, broad agreement with libertarianism in general (Bergland, 1986; Friedman, 1989; Hoppe, 1993; Murray, 1997; Nozick, 1973; Rothbard, 1973, 1978, 1982; Woolridge,
Volume 2, Article 3 (2010) I. Introduction For a long time, I have been writing about the importance of privatizing highways, mainly because of the carnage that occurs on our socialist roads. People die like flies on these statist vehicular thoroughfares, some 40,000 per year in the U.S. alone. My first publication on this topic appeared in 1979,
Volume 2, Article 4 (2010) The thesis of Van Dun (2009) is that there is a conflict between freedom and property rights, and that libertarians ought to side with the former. If not, people, many people, will likely starve to death by being trapped in their houses, unable to get out of them, or, caught outside of them, without the ability to return
Suppose we are on the upper part of the Laffer curve. That means that if the tax rate is lowered, greater tax revenues will accrue to the government. Stipulate that the state is an evil institution. This is a libertarian analysis, after all. Thus, we arrive at what must count at least, as an anomaly. A reduction in the tax rate is ordinarily
I am delighted to be able to reply to Jakobsson (2010), which is a rejoinder to my publication (Block, forthcoming). One reason for my joy is because that author does me honor in thinking that my own article is worthy of a rejoinder. Another, is because there will be no “passing of the ships in the night” in this exchange. Jakobsson
Volume 2, Article 31 (2010) Introduction I am honored by the publication of Borer (2010). I welcome the publication of this essay, and thank this author for singling out my contributions to libertarian theory for comment. I am grateful to him, too, for this reply gives me the opportunity to delve deeper into the issues covered in Block (2009A,
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
Volume 2, Article 34 (2010) I. Introduction 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,
What is the Mises Institute?
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.