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As I understand it, the case for the welfare state is the sense that “negative” liberty (being free from the coercive interference of others) is not an adequate condition for achieving a successful, flourishing life. Rather, “positive” liberty — the notion that liberty has its genuine virtue to the extent that one possess the power [...]
On ethical grounds, my rejection of the state was based on the idea that the state’s claim to a monopoly on the enforcement of rules of conduct within a given territory was arbitrary if no individual has ultimate decision-making authority over property to be delegated to the state in the first place. However, I am [...]
On the surface, a recent post on Walking Upstream called “Libertarianism: Coercion Seen Through a Fun House Mirror” may not look like something libertarians should embrace. Upon deeper reflection though, it is exactly the kind of thinking about our current corporatist economic system that libertarians need to embrace (and are doing more of) [...]
Admittedly, the title is tongue-in-cheek. I don’t believe that there are any benefits of being actually exploited. It is a reference to Karl Marx’s mistaken theory of exploitation, which holds that the full benefit of the produce of labor rightfully belongs to the laborer. As the theory explains, owners of the means [...]
Ad hominem attacks aside, YouTuber hawanja’s video on free-market anarchists seems to make the point that people “naturally organize themselves into hierarchies” that require violence to be maintained, so anarchism runs counter to the human condition. It is left unstated why violence is needed or ethically justified to maintain these hierarchies if they were [...]
I commented on a hit piece on Austrian economics at the self-identified Marxist website Political Affairs. Besides being completely unwarranted and poorly written in terms of grammar and spelling, the blog post was riddled with misrepresentations and outright fabrications about the “Mieses Institute.”
I posted a comment, and usually that would be the end [...]
I have addressed before why the notion of god is a contradiction and how objective morality can be discovered through empirical evidence. A point I have not mentioned is that many theists, despite their claims otherwise, hold that objective morality is impossible. Christians, for example, will claim that their god’s nature is all-good, [...]
Who plans whom, who directs and dominates whom, who assigns to other people their station in life, and who is to have his due allotted by others? — Friedrich HayekArchives
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Central Planning Undermines Democracy
Part of the appeal of a democratic electoral process are the ideas that it helps to maintain accountability and legitimacy of the presiding governing structure. With that in mind, some advocates of a state hold that the primary function of government is to maintain a democratic process, as opposed to defending individual rights as minarchist [...]