November 20, 2009 – 7:05 am
Here in OZ the David Letterman show comes on around 1215am. It is not a show I watch but for some reason I found myself watching the “Stupid Human Tricks” segment. There was a girl, maybe 12, who jumped on a pogo stick and played the violin. Dave made a joke that she should drop [...]
October 16, 2009 – 5:21 am
I just cleaned up the article “101 Ways to Promote Libertarianism” (Part I and Part II) by Rothbard from The Libertarian Forum. Unless I find the rest it looks like there are only 35/101. Here are some of the better ones according to me:
4. Write a letter a week to some newspaper giving a libertarian viewpoint on [...]
October 6, 2009 – 5:33 am
When my father-in-law asked me for one succinct article to describe what libertarianism is and why it should even matter, this is the first one I came across. Rothbard is extremely persuasive and the logic is compelling. Say what you will about libertarians (i.e., anarcho-capitalists), at least their position is consistent.
Rothbard asks a question I [...]
September 21, 2009 – 11:58 pm
Murray Rothbard was, of course, a huge fan of Lysander Spooner. Rothbard supported anarchist Benjamin Tucker as well but it seems Tucker shifted positions. Rothbard wrote about this in his “Introduction to Lysander Spooner: Libertarian Pietist, Vices are not Crimes”:
Yet, even in his own anarchist movement Spooner was the last of the Old Guard believers [...]
Being a libertarian means explaining and justifying your beliefs to others, beliefs they have most likely never heard. Since the views are not as common as other political views, the libertarian must also have more knowledge in more areas. In short, it is not the path of least resistance. Here are some areas the libertarian [...]
Many (Neoclassical) economists view the economy as an engine that, when finely tuned and with a proper driver in control, can achieve what they term allocative and productive efficiency. Rothbard, prescient as always, discusses efficiency in an excellent article, “The Myth of Efficiency.” It is one of those articles every economist should read. And [...]
March 27, 2009 – 10:14 pm
In response to Peter’s comment, this is probably one of the best articles on this topic–Society Without a State–and written by one of the greatest libertarian thinkers, Murray Rothbard. Here is an excerpt:
The basic point, however, is that the state is not needed to arrive at legal principles or their elaboration: indeed, much of the [...]
February 22, 2009 – 11:02 pm
This is a long quote, but a great one to understand charitable and nonprofit organizations and their role in the market. In short, the donors to these organizations are the consumers, as compared to a “business” firm where the consumers are separate from the producers. Rothbard explains (read the whole article here):
The second type of [...]
February 22, 2009 – 8:40 pm
If you haven’t heard this 16-minute talk by Joann Rothbard about her husband, Murray, from 1996, I highly recommend it. She talks about the split with Ayn Rand, and she actually sounds like Rothbard, and is just as funny. It is excellent.
The Good Life of Murray N. Rothbard
February 18, 2009 – 11:46 pm
Just got this article up from Rothbard–”The New Libertarian Creed”
The conservative holds as one of his highest goals the preservation of “law and order,” but his “order” and his “law” is the coercive dictation of the state. Throughout the ages, and in the present day as well, the state has lived through the profound disorder [...]
