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TÊóÙ L®ÙãÙ®Ä SÊ®ãù Th e Mises Institute dedicates this volume to all of its generous donors and wishes to thank these Patrons, in particular: top dogTM ~ Anonymous, Michael G. Keller, DO ~ Anonymous (3), Wesley and Terri Alexander, Harvey Allison, Th omas Balmer, Steven R. Berger, Bob and Rita Bost, Mary E. Braum, Wayne Chapeskie, Andrew S. Cofrin, Mike Fox, Kevin R. Griffi n, Jeff rey Harding, Dr. Ronald J. Legere II, Robert A. Moore, Gregory and Joy Morin, Nelson and Mary Nash, Mr. and Mrs. William C. Newton, Paul F. Peppard, Rafael A. Perez-Mera, MD, Daniel J. Rozeboom, Chris Rufer, William P. Sarubbi, Donald E. Siemers, Henri Etel Skinner, Hubert John Strecker, John Tubridy, Joseph Vierra, Dr. Th omas L. Wenck, Brian Wilton, Tom Winn, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Woodul III, Guillermo M. Yeatts TÊóÙ L®ÙãÙ®Ä SÊ®ãù W½ãÙ B½Ê» M ISESI NSTITUTE Published 2014 by the Mises Institute. Th is work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 mises.org ISBN: 978-1-61016-595-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-61016-631-7 (large print edition) eISBN: 978-1-61016-629-4 (digital) To the Memory of a Great Man, Murray N. Rothbard CÊÄãÄãÝ Preface . 11 Introduction . 15 I. Foreign Policy . 19 1. Libertarian Warmongers: A Contradiction in Terms . .21 2. Bloodthirsty “Libertarians”: Why Warmongers Can’t Be Pro-Liberty . .24 3. Th irteenth Floors . .27 4. Let’s Go Commie, Well, Kerry. .29 5. Kill ‘Em All: Let’s All Turn Libertarian Warmonger. .32 6. Let the South Go: St. Abraham’s War and Current Foreign Policy . .35 II. Economics . 41 A. Microeconomics . 43 7. Market vs. State: It Is the Overriding Distinction in Economics and Politics . .43 8. What Do Boxing and Business Schools Have in Common? Th e Problem of Ratings . .47 9. Th e Motor Vehicle Bureau; Confronting It . .50 10. Want To Help the Poor and Oppressed? Encourage Laissez-Faire Capitalism, You Bleeding-Heart Liberal, You . .52 7 8 Toward a Libertarian Society 11. Want To Cure Poverty? Get the Government Out of the Market . .56 12. Airport Insecurity . .59 B. Macroeconomics . .64 13. Keep the Penny, Toss the Fed: On the Criminals Who Killed Th is Once-Useful Coin. .64 14. Private Enterprise and the Fed; What Should Be the Relationship?. .66 C. Environmental Economics . 69 15. Heroic Hunt Farms . .69 16. Me and Hurricane Ivan: Th anks a Lot, Government . .72 17. Me and Katrina: Weather Socialism. .76 18. Clean, Cool Private Water: Government Water Means Trouble . .85 D. Labor Economics . 88 19. Th e Evil of Unions; In the Public As Well As the Private Sector . .88 20. Is Th ere a Right To Unionize? It All Depends. .94 21. In Defense of Scabs; Th e Limited Justifi cation for Trade Unions. .97 22. Th e Yellow Dog Contract; Bring Back Th is Heroic Institution. .104 23. Stop Whining About Jobs; It’s Production Th at Counts . .107 III. Personal Liberties . 113 A. Feminism. 115 24. Four Firemen Die in Socialist Fire; Worse, Two of Th em Were Women . .115 25. Arm the Coeds . .118 Contents 9 26. Don’t Take Your Daughter to Work and Other Un-PC Th oughts . .121 27. Feminist Sports Fraud; High School Boys Are Better Th an the Top Women Athletes . .125 28. Term Limits Hurt Female Politicians; A Silver Lining . .128 B. Drugs . 131 29. Second Th oughts on Drug Legalization: It Means More Loot For the State . .131 30. Th e Libertarian Case For Drug Prohibition . .134 C. Charity . 138 31. Celebrities Engaged in Legalized Th eft . .138 32. Don’t Donate To the Red Cross. .140 33. Social Justice; A Scary Concept. .146 D. Medical. 149 34. Stem Cells: A Libertarian Compromise? . .149 35. Dr. Government; Th e Bureaucrat With the Stethoscope . .153 IV. Libertarian Theory. 157 A. The Basic Premises. 159 36. Turning Th eir Coats For the State. .159 37. Th e Libertarian Axiom and Jonah Goldberg, Neo-con . .163 38. Compassionate Conservatism . .166 39. Ideas Rule; For Good or Ill: Th e Importance of IdeologyGovernment . .170 40. Sex, Drugs, & Rock ‘n’ Roll; and Libertarianism . .176 B. Secession . 184 41. If at First You Don’t Secede, Try, Try Again. .184 42. Secession and Slavery . .188 10 Toward a Libertarian Society C. Punishment Theory. 193 43. Th e Death Penalty . .193 44. A Silver Lining in Unjust Executions?. .195 D. Politics . 199 45. Term Limits Make Me Sick; A Hoppean Analysis . .199 46. Federalism: Is It Libertarian?. 202 Thanks, Mr. Libertarian . 207 Index . 213 Preface hat sticks out at me is that libertarianism is a three-legged stool. It consists of foreign policy, economic policy, and policy concerning personal liberties. Wait. No. Th at is not Wquite right. Yes, libertarianism does indeed consist of these three “legs” but so does every other political philosophy — Marxism, Con- servatism, Left Liberalism, Progressivism, communism, Nazism, feminism — without exception. Th at is, every political philosophy, if it is to be a com- plete one, must address these three issues, wrestle with them, come to grips with them. Th e topics I address in this book consist of a quintessentially libertar- ian answer to these challenges. And, if this material is to be consistent with that philosophy, it must adhere, strictly, to the two elements, the only two elements, of libertarianism: the non-aggression principle and private prop- erty rights based upon homesteading. Does this book succeed in accomplishing that task? Th at is for others to determine. As for me, all I can say is that certainly I intend that it do so. For example, in the realm of foreign policy, the non-aggression principle would imply a policy of strict non-interventionism. Th is is not isolation- ism. Th e latter means that the U.S. pulls up its drawbridges, so to speak, and Americans have nothing to do with anyone in the rest of the world. Th at is not at all what the non-aggression principle requires. Citizens of 11 12 Toward a Libertarian Society our country should be free to visit, trade with, buy from, sell to, invest in, and allow investments from, people from all corners of the globe. It merely implies that the U.S. withdraw its hundreds of military bases from scores of other countries. Is this pacifi sm? Of course not. Th e proper role for the government of the U.S., to the extent that it has any proper role at all, is to engage in defense, not off ense. Every basketball fan knows the diff erence. It is when the other team has the ball that they yell “Defense!” It is too bad that the average American cannot be relied upon to make this distinction consistently. What would a proper foreign policy require? Something of the sort of a very powerful Coast Guard, ready to kick the butt of anyone who would dare attack us (and shorn of its responsibilities to interdict il- legal drugs, etc.). Th is is why, in section I of this book, dedicated to foreign policy, I have attempted, in my own weird way, to make the case that the U.S. is at present, not a country that implements a libertarian stance, but rather one of imperialism. It swaggers its way around the planet, launching drones at people, drowning people, and using other ways to kill people, virtually none of them who have ever attacked America. And in the cases they have done so, as Ron Paul correctly insists, it was due to blowback. Th ey are over here, he avers, because we were over there fi rst. Th e solution of course is to adopt the policy laid out by George Washington and Th omas Jeff erson, no “entangling alliances” and of John Quincy Adams, not going abroad in search of monsters to destroy. MYOB, mind your own business, is a far better policy than anything employed by the U.S. for most of its history. Emulating the foreign policy of Switzerland might be a good beginning. In section II of this book, devoted to economic liberties, I try to make the case that a free enterprise system is self-sustaining, maximizes wealth, and can do better, far better, without any “help” from the state. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” would be the diametric oppo- site of the viewpoint off ered here. For the so-called public sector is based upon initiatory violence, at least insofar as its compulsory taxation is con- cerned. And in the Rothbardian analysis, its triangular intervention, forbid- ding or compelling commercial interaction on the part of the residents of the country, hurts, does not help, economic well-being. My favorite chapter title in the microeconomics section is: “Want To Help the Poor and Op- pressed? Encourage Laissez-faire Capitalism, You Bleeding-heart Liberal, You.” Come to think of it, this applies as well to bleeding heart so-called libertarians. And this applies, in spades, to the macroeconomic sphere. Say what you will about microeconomic interventionism, it is by its very nature Preface 13 somewhat limited in scope. Not so the macroeconomic sphere, where the statists can do far more harm, in that their policies have an impact on ev- ery corner of the economy. It is important, too, to make the case for free market environmentalism, which is far from a contradiction in terms, no matter how our friends on the left wish it were.