Property Rights

In a recent symposium on Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty, philosopher Matt Zwolinski takes issue with Rothbard on Murray’s views of freedom and property rights.

Do we need government to referee all of our property disputes? Throughout history, people have peacefully resolved disputes without the help of state authorities. 

In publicly opposing apartheid, William H. Hutt saw how legal segregation kept black South Africans from pursuing legitimate economic goals. To Hutt, apartheid deprived people of equality of economic opportunity, which kept them in poverty.

What are property rights and how do we define them? The late Butler Shaffer argued that they come from our “will to own.”

In a recent symposium on Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty, philosopher Matt Zwolinski takes issue with Rothbard on Murray’s views of freedom and property rights.

Private property rights are under fire by progressive elites — even as those same elites protect their own property fiercely. But without these rights, a functioning economy is not possible.

A common knock on libertarianism is that it is so individualistic that it rejects the concept of community. (Think of the political cartoon in which the libertarian lifeguard let people drown.) In truth, strong communities also need free individuals.

In publicly opposing apartheid, William H. Hutt saw how legal segregation kept black South Africans from pursuing legitimate economic goals. To Hutt, apartheid deprived people of equality of economic opportunity, which kept them in poverty.

In our current age of rampant monetary inflation and price inflation, good economics has become more relevant for ordinary people. Inflation is not some arcane matter of consumer price indices and statistics on the monetary base. Inflation, is simply ruinous on the personal level.

After the Indochina War, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world, but dramatic free-market reforms have made this formerly socialist country prosperous.