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…]
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.
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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