From time immemorial, the reigning myth of rule has been that the rulers provide a quid pro quo: in exchange for the people’s submission and payment of tribute, the rulers protect the people from the enemies who lurk “out there.” The promise was often unfulfilled, however.
Category: Editor’s Picks
Kids Learn Naturally: Why Compulsory Schooling is Unneccessary and Even Harmful, A Case Study
Life is learning. Language has a definite purpose for us, and utility. In short, learning the language our mommy and daddy use to communicate has meaning. We need to get that milk! We need our blessed diaper changed! This language stuff gets shit done! Without meaning, “education” is a breathtakingly inane and pathetic waste of an individual’s time.
Success Follows Learning and Doing
I don’t know what I’m doing. This is a message I try to convey when speaking to teenagers. It’s intimidating, this grown up stuff. Adults do a lot of adulting. That seems daunting. And they think we’ve got it figured out. Fact is, I don’t.
Markets and Politics Are Both about Scarcity
People succeed in markets by reducing scarcity–that is, by easing scarcity’s grip on their fellow humans. And the more they ease scarcity’s grip, the greater their success. Profits are earned in competitive markets only by successfully making desired goods and services less scarce than they would otherwise be.
The Tangled Web of Anti-immigration Argumentation
So, which is it, anti-immigrationist: is the government too incompetent to exclude ineligible recipients from getting benefits, or is it too incompetent to keep illegal immigrants out the the country—or is it both?
There’s Nothing Special about International Trade
“One of the important applications of the principle of comparative advantage is international trade. To an economist there is nothing really special about international trade; individuals make trades when both of them expect to benefit, whether they live across the street, in different states, or in different countries.”
An Argument for a Stateless Society
The state fundamentally violates the non-aggression principle. Only its death can absolve its infringement, and I think this simple fact alone is more than enough justification for its termination.
Social Norms, Moral Judgments, and Irrational Parenting
Our current norm of extreme protection of children has become, unfortunately, not just a social norm, but a moral norm. If you don’t watch your child (or have some other responsible guard watching) every minute, you are, in the eyes of many people, doing something immoral. How can we change this crippling social norm and get back to common sense?
Liberty and Community Go Together
There is a form of community that is the whole basis of the market economy. It is an extended network of human relationships worked out in peace and mutual agreement. So far as we know, the capacity to form such cooperative relationships is distinct to the human experience.
Why Can’t You Pay For Sex?
Consensual sex is legal. But as soon as one party offers cash to another in exchange for sex and that money is voluntarily accepted, it’s considered prostitution, and that is illegal. This is hypocritical, illogical, and wasteful — and it needs to stop.