During the Middle Ages, taxation was considered to be appropriate only as an extreme measure in times of emergency, and as a last resort. Kings were expected to subsist on revenues from their own private property.
Milton Friedman and the Monetarists believed that fluctuations in the money supply caused the boom-and-bust business cycles. Their solution—keeping money growth slow and steady—would still lead to business cycles.
Murray Rothbard recognized that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the lifeblood for government intervention. It doesn't need to be “reformed,” but rather should be outright abolished.
Leftists seek to create a new society that supposedly is peaceable. However, they also celebrate violence done against political opponents, something that Murray Rothbard understood as undermining every supposed peaceful goal they claim to be pursuing.
Artificial Intelligence, for all of the fear-mongering taking place, simply is a tool that if applied in a free market setting will make our economy stronger, not weaker.
In this week's Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon examines John Tomasi's thesis of Free Market Fairness that the collectivism espoused by John Rawls is compatible with classical liberalism. Not surprisingly, Dr. Gordon has another viewpoint.
Governments at all levels play the same game—always threatening to eliminate school buses, police departments, ambulances, garbage collection—whatever can succeed in getting the voters to approve more taxes and spending.
Through its coercive monopoly over money creation, government constantly engages in silent theft through inflation, all done in the name of “stimulating” the economy.
Advocates for US military intervention have invoked the war against the Barbary pirates as justification. Yet, an examination of that conflict shows that President Jefferson’s actions were limited and followed the direction of Congress.
The Renaissance period is seen as mostly positive by historians, but the sinister development of absolutism and the imperial state complicates the legacy of that time.
