My book The Economics of Law, Order, and Action: The Logic of Public Goods is now available for purchase. Its primary purpose is to provide a comprehensive challenge to the standard position of the economic and political mainstream, according to which efficient production of so-called public goods, including law and defense, requires the use of territorial monopolies of coercive force.
Author: Jakub B. Wiśniewski
“You are what you value. I value: individual liberty, economic common sense, logical rigour, clarity of thought, intellectual integrity and quiet charity.”
There is No “Third Way” Between Cooperation and Destruction
Every such “third way” turns out to be at best a dead end of stagnation, and at worst a highway to social disintegration, and sound economic knowledge is the most reliable means of avoiding both.
Liberation is the Ultimate Form of Escape
Yes, libertarianism is escapist. But, to paraphrase Tolkien, it is escapist in the proper sense of the term: it is the philosophy of a sane person trying to escape from a lunatic asylum.
Optimist, Pessimist, Realist
An optimist believes that civilization is rapidly advancing on the economic, scientific, and technological front. A pessimist believes that civilization is rapidly deteriorating on the cultural, philosophical, and spiritual front.
Statism is the Ultimate Embodiment of Vice
Pride is the worst kind of vice, power is the worst kind of pride, political power is the worst kind of power, and state power is the worst kind of political power.
The Problems of Prosperity and Advancement
In a world of unprecedented material prosperity and technological advancement, the biggest intellectual problem is not “hyper-rationalism”, but hyper-infantilism.
Abettors of Organized Oppression
Never tolerate calling statist “intellectuals” “well-meaning”. Whoever means subjecting others to institutionalized violence, aggression, and coercion by definition does not mean well.
A Phenomenal, Yet Insufficiently Appreciated Book
Let us appreciate Rothbard’s masterpiece as an economic milestone in its own right, not just as an extension and clarification of “Human Action,” with the hope that it will eventually become one of the standard points of reference for seekers of comprehensive economic knowledge in a world that makes it an ever more indispensable asset.
The Socio-Political Equivalent of a Catch-22
If anyone ever managed to create real socialism – that is, a system completely detached from external free markets, perfectly efficient at destroying internal black markets, and not dependent on financing by other, not-fully-socialist regimes – then such a system would immediately collapse in a spectacular manner, consumed by calculational chaos so exhaustively described by Ludwig von Mises.
First, Do Not Destroy Scarce Resources
If there is one lesson that everyone should learn from studying even the most elementary economics, and if there is one major intellectual gift that sound economists gave humanity, then it is precisely this vaccine against Orwellian superstition, according to which destruction contains any productive value.