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Issue 167, 4Th Quarter, 2015 s Whole Number 167 “If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself” 4th Quarter 2015 Voluntary Government as a vestige of political protection, not even as represented by constitutionally limited, representative republican Marketable Service: Reminiscences government. He was apparently the first person to realize on the History of an Idea that the market economy contained the means for its By Alvin Lowi [1] own protection and to advance a theory of a society Back in 1954, when he was at the Foundation for entirely devoid of political regimentation, which is to Economic Education at Irvington-on-Hudson, New say, a society without a state. York, economist Baldy Harper called the idea of Molinari envisioned a stable and humane social voluntary government a most radical one. [2] At that paradigm. He took individual human liberty to the limit time, Harper said he could count on the fingers of one to see if it could stand on its own legs. Libertarians hand all the people he knew in the world who nowadays call this position individualist anarchy, market entertained the notion of a “total alternative” to tax- anarchism, or anarcho-capitalism. Society without funded government. Spencer Heath, Spencer political statecraft has also been referred to variously as MacCallum, Robert LeFevre, and Murray Rothbard economic government, voluntary government, or were the only ones who came to his mind. [3] Today, government via market-delivered property protection given the Internet, there are probably tens of thousands, services. maybe even millions, who entertain this notion, at least The Free Enterprise Institute furtively. Yet, the history of the idea, its inception and My colleague Galambos came to think like Molinari spread, is sketchy and tentative. about a century later . He did so apparently without a My encounter with this idea began when my friend prompt from Molinari - but not without some prompting and colleague, Andrew J. Galambos, introduced me to from his students. Even so, this was a remarkable Spencer Heath. [4] At the time, 1961, I was associated transition for Galambos, who had no academic with Galambos and his Free Enterprise Institute. There, I preparation in the humanities. He was an astronomer and was privileged to observe and participate in the astrophysicist who left the government-dominated development and exposition of such ideas. I had always defense industry in 1959, during the height of the Cold known this was a unique opportunity, but until recently War, to return to academia to make the world safe for had not thought to memorialize the experience. I was astrophysicists. In 1960, while still a tenured physics prompted to do so when I recently discovered a reprint professor, he launched his campaign, “Capitalism, The of J. Huston McCulloch's 1977 translation from the Key to Survival.” This was a short-lived seminar at French of a remarkable essay entitled THE Whittier College where he taught, but it was soon PRODUCTION OF SECURITY. [5] I found the essay, transformed into a profit-seeking educational enterprise written in 1849, a most compelling read in itself, and the in Los Angeles under the banner of The Free Enterprise inspiring introduction by Murray Rothbard made it Institute (FEI) and continued for several decades. virtually irresistible to put down. It brought to mind Galambos died in 1997 after a long illness. In 1999, some of the experiences I had almost forgotten. some of his taped FEI lectures were transcribed and The author of the essay was an obscure laissez-faire published in a volume entitled SIC ITUR AD ASTRA. economist from Belgium named Gustave de Molinari On founding FEI, Galambos embraced the limited (1819-1912), a contemporary and intellectual kin of the government framework of classical liberalism. He was better known French liberal political economist, Frederic an enthusiastic promoter of the writings of Mises, Read, Bastiat. Born in Belgium and educated there in the new Hazlitt, Harper, Hayek, and Rothbard. In the early academic field of economics, Molinari was associated 1960s, he brought Read, Mises, and Harper to Southern with the French économistes, a group of laissez-faire California for well-attended seminars. Galambos was liberals recognizable nowadays as a rare breed: pro- obsessed with American constitutionalism. He had a capitalist, non-political libertarians. Throughout his long strong sentimental attachment to the American life (he was 92 when he died), Molinari argued for Revolution as fomented by Thomas Paine, which peace, free trade, freedom of speech, freedom of represented for him the break with old-world political association, and liberty in all its forms. despotism and elitism and especially the break-through Molinari was unique among economists in his in social technology that resulted, enabling the liberation conviction that the economy did not need the slightest (continued on page 5) SECURITY, partially reprinted in Issue 35 of THE VOLUNTARYIST.) However, Molinari made no mention of the role of insurance. That idea appears to Editor: Carl Watner have first been expressed more than 100 years later by Webmaster: Dave Scotese someone else, as will be described below. When I received a copy of an email from subscriber Subscription Information Richard Boren in September 2014, I had already been Published quarterly by The Voluntaryists, P.O. Box 275, Gramling, SC 29348. A six-issue subscription is thinking about the pivotal role that defense and insurance $25. For overseas postage, please add $5. Single back companies would play in a state-free society. Richard issues are $5. Gold, silver, and bitcoin readily accepted. had written that email to Hans-Hermann Hoppe, the Please check the number on your mailing label to see when you should renew. Carl Watner grants permission author of a book, DEMOCRACY, THE GOD THAT to reprint his own articles without special request. THE FAILED, he had recently read. That book, first VOLUNTARYIST is online at www.voluntaryist.com. published in 2001, placed heavy emphasis on the role of insurance companies in a free society. In it Hoppe gave Insurance Companies as credit to Morris and Linda Tannehill for their “brilliant Competing Governments: Whose insights and analysis” in that regard, as expressed in their Idea Was It? 1970 book, THE MARKET FOR LIBERTY. The purpose of Boren’s email to Hoppe was to suggest that By Richard Boren perhaps the Tannehills were not the true source of the [Editor’s Note: As some of you may know, I operate ideas he so greatly admired. I suggested to Richard that a small retail tire store and auto service center. Several he write an article on the history of the insurance problems in the store involve questions regarding the concept, and he offered me the following.] sale of used tires and the proper way to repair punctured tires. If a customer brings in a tire with plenty of tread, I first heard the idea that insurance companies would but which was manufactured ten years ago, is it safe to play an important role in a state-free society in 1975, install? Should a tire be ‘plugged’ from the outside or while taking Course V-50 at the Free Enterprise Institute must it be inspected and repaired from the inside? These (FEI). The concept had been taught there for over 10 are questions the tire industry is struggling to answer. years, which is to say about five years before the Many leading tire associations look to the federal and/or Tannehills published their book. My instructor was state governments to offer legislative and regulatory Senior Lecturer Jay Stuart Snelson (1936-2011). He did solutions. When I suggested to the editor of a tire a superb job of teaching concepts innovated by Andrew magazine that the insurance companies should set these J. Galambos (1924-1997) and others in what was labeled standards, he responded: “Where did you ever get that the Science of Volition. Galambos had founded the idea from?” Well, I got it from several decades of Institute, a profit-seeking venture, in the early 1960s. I studying and thinking about voluntaryist solutions to was so taken by what I learned there that I took classes societal problems. continually for four years, all but the first taught In a state-free market economy it would only be personally by Galambos. FEI operated under Galambos’ natural for insurance companies to establish safety and direct management until the mid-1980s when he was procedural standards for those that they insure. Among sidelined by Alzheimer’s disease. other things they would probably fund organizations like Prior to reading Hoppe’s book, I had never heard of Underwriters Laboratory and Consumers’ Union to test the Tannehills but was inspired to purchase their book. products and to establish minimum requirements for What they had written about insurance companies obtaining insurance. Thus, rather than the state dictating sounded a lot like what I had learned from Galambos. I the rules regarding tire aging, tire repair, (and thousands tried to find out more about the authors but hit a dead of other standards, such as the way to store explosive end. I could find no mention of them anywhere, other fertilizers or the use of seat belts and air bags in autos), it than references to their book. It didn't appear that they would be the insurers of these products and procedures had written anything before THE MARKET FOR that would be responsible. After all, they would have a LIBERTY, or anything since. Apparently the book was large amount at stake should an insurable event occur quite successful in libertarian circles when it first came and cause them a loss. out. I asked myself, “Who comes out of nowhere, writes In a voluntaryist world, by definition, all products a well-received book, and then disappears?” The answer, and services would be provided via private, voluntary as far as I know, is pretty much limited to J.D.
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