Re: In an Ideal Nation

I wanted say a thing or two about this piece by Leonard Read.

Though Read was not a complete voluntaryist, you could call him a minarchist, this list of ideals are entirely voluntaryist. In fact, “to buy or not to buy any service or product offered for sale, even if the refusal displeases the seller” applies as much to government services such as law and security as it does to oil changes, shoe shines, and, less virtuously, prostitution.

I have it on good authority that Read new full well that his logic led one to complete voluntaryism (anarchism), but decided not to publicly embrace it. Read, as you may or may not know, founded the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946, an educational institution on all things economics and liberty. I’ve read their flagship publication, The Freeman, for going-on 6 years now.