StephanKinsella.com

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Big Charity
By Stephan Kinsella
September 15, 2009

Roderick Long in a recent post asks us to consider the following proposition: “1. Big business and big government are (for the most part) natural allies.” As I noted there, “Do you mean big business as it exists in today’s world, or big business per se? If the former, you have a point (and from my quick read I don’t disagree with any of your other points). But to argue for the latter interpretation would imply that there could be no big business in a free society.” [continue reading…]

Recent paper: Wojciech Gamrot, “The Labor Theory Of Property Does Not Mandate Easements,” Social Communication 27, no. 2 (2025): 59–68.

Abstract:

Some libertarian theorists advocate for recognizing easements by necessity. In specific circumstances they would guarantee the right of passage through the land that is already owned. One popular argument in favor of such easements concerns a situation where landowners’ exercise of their property rights prevents others from entering non homesteaded areas and taking them into ownership. The argument holds that a firstcomer who mixed labor with some parcel that blocks access to unowned land de facto owns that land as well. It is argued that such a property right is self-contradictory because the only legitimate method of original appropriation is labor mixing and the firstcomer actually acquires the virgin land without doing so.  Easements of necessity are then postulated as a means to rectify this alleged contradiction. In the present paper this argument in favor of easements is examined and refuted.

[continue reading…]

Jeffrey Tucker’s recent article, “Small Steps Toward Medical Freedom,” The Epoch Times (Jan. 6, 2026) has several provocative “urgent priorities for U.S. medical-insurance reform”. Writes Tucker: [continue reading…]

[From my Webnote series]

Stephan Kinsella, “Law and Intellectual Property in a Stateless Society,” in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023), Part II.F:

Libertarians oppose all forms of crime (aggression). Thus we oppose not only private aggression: we also oppose institutionalized or public aggression. The opposition to institutionalized aggression is based on the view, espoused by Bastiat, that an act of aggression that is unjust for a private actor to perform remains illegitimate when performed by agencies, institutions, or collectives.^[51] Murder or theft by ten, or a hundred, or a million, people is not better than theft by a lone criminal. It is for this reason that libertarians view the state itself as inherently criminal. For the state does not just happen to engage in institutionalized aggression; it necessarily does so on a systematic basis as part of the very nature of the state. [continue reading…]

[From my Webnote series]

Quite often you hear people muse about a post-scarcity society, one of near superabundance, where money will no longer be useful since there will be no need to economize or calculate. This is reminiscent of the Star Trek universe which sometimes implies there is no longer any need for money. Of course this is preposterous. There is a reason Rothbard mocked what he called the “Space Cadets.” ¹ I mean hey, I like sci-fi too, but know the difference between fiction and reality, unlike too many libertarian activists, trekkers, and D&D fans.

True post-scarcity or superabundance is impossible, just as the economic concept of scarcity (conflictable resources) ² is not really the same as the more colloquial concept of “scarcity” (lack of abundance). ³ [continue reading…]

1. See Kinsella, Rothbard on Libertarian “Space Cadets”. [↩]
2. On Conflictability and Conflictable Resources; Voluntaryism and Voluntarism. [↩]
3. On Property Rights in Superabundant Bananas and Property Rights as Normative Support for Possession; Nobody Owns Bitcoin; KOL272-2 | Q&A with Hülsmann, Dürr, Kinsella, Hoppe (PFS 2019). [↩]

As noted in KOL480 | The Liberland Constitution and Libertarian Principles (Liberland Prague, 2025), I recently visited Prague for the Liberland Constitution Christmas Party Prague 2025, which also featured my friends Alessandro Fusillo and Hans Hoppe, who also spoke. My friend Greg Morin joined me, and we met up there with friends such as Hans’s wife Gulçin Imre Hoppe and Domitia Fusiillo, Jozeph and Helena Martiniak, and others. I also met up with Paula Hessenberger, a longtime friend of my brother Michael, who  passed away last year but lived for years in Prague and helped to start an annual charity ball in Prague which benefits a local children’s hospital, which now features a plaque in his honor. We had a marvelous time. Pictures of the event may be be found at Hoppe, Fusillo, Kinsella Speak at Liberland Constitution Celebration, Vit’s post at Facebook, my facebook post, and online at google drive (full set) and here (Kinsella set); a selection below. [continue reading…]

Related:

• Examples of Libertarian Law vs. Louisiana vs. French vs. Common Law: Consideration and Formalities
• Roman Law and Hypothetical Cases
• The Superiority of the Roman Law: Scarcity, Property, Locke and Libertarianism
• The Universal Principles of Liberty, §11

Not a normal answer man segment since this was not an unsolicited query, but rather from a private discussion with some libertarian friends.

We were discussing Hedge fund ordered to pay bonus to trader who made 97% of its revenues. In this case a London trading firm indicated the trader would likely get a discretionary bonus if he hit a $10M target; he ended up far exceeding this and making 97% of its revenues that year.

Still, the boss told him he would not give him a bonus because they were not happy with negative publicity from a dispute with the SEC from previous employment activities. He sued and one. I said ULTIAAO, “unlibertarian things I almost approve of.” One friend disagreed, saying the contract said the bonus was discretionary so that settles it. [continue reading…]

[From my Webnote series]

Related:

• Libertarian Answer Man: Self-ownership for slaves and Crusoe; and Yiannopoulos on Accurate Analysis and the term “Property”; Mises distinguishing between juristic and economic categories of “ownership”
• Intellectual Property Rights as Negative Servitudes

From Stephan Kinsella, “What Libertarianism Is,” Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023):

Property as a Right between People

Moreover, as noted in “A Libertarian Theory of Contract” (ch. 9), n.1, property rights can be conceived of not as a right between a human actor and an owned object, but rather as a right as between human actors, but with respect to particular (owned) resources. [continue reading…]

nb @NSKinsella pic.twitter.com/BTFXhpnUFm

— Kadaververwertungsanstalt (@witheredsummer) December 10, 2025

Sheldon Richman opened my naive eyes to many ugly truths about the US Constitution. ¹ His great book, America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited (Griffin & Lash: Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2016; pdf) was published a few years ago. It was actually published under a CC-SA license but still unavailable online. As all books should be free and online, ² I nudged Sheldon to send me the file, and tidied it up a bit, so here you have it.

Jeffrey Tucker’s Foreword and Sheldon’s Introduction are below. Enjoy! [continue reading…]

1.  KOL457 | Sheldon Richman & IP; Andre from Brazil re Contract Theory, Student Loan Interest Payments, Bankruptcy, Vagueness, Usury;  On Constitutional Sentimentalism; Napolitano on Health-Care Reform and the Constitution: Is the Commerce Clause Really Limited? [↩]
2. The Academic Publishing Paywall Copyright Subsidized Racket; On Leading by Example and the Power of Attraction (Open Source Publishing, Creative Commons, Public Domain Publishing); Tucker, The Magic of Open-Source Publishing; Academic publishers have become the enemies of science: yet more real piracy;  Tucker, The Magic of Open-Source Publishing; Tucker, “Authors: Beware of Copyright,” in Bourbon for Breakfast (Mises Institute, 2010); Authors: Don’t Make the Buddy Holly Mistake. [↩]

Mr. Kinsella,

I have a question after reviewing your chapter “A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability,” in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023).

If a debtor, pursuant to a secured loan agreement (mortgage), decides not to continue making payments on the loan despite their ability to do so, is this theft? The lender has the ability to foreclose on the property in the event of default. [continue reading…]