Rights are not metaphysical entities. No pathologist finds them during an autopsy. In a sense, they are conventions, but by that, I do not mean they are arbitrary. They are conventions much in the same way that David Hume saw the virtue of justice, which he equated with respect for property.
Tag: appropriation
Anything But Original Appropriation is Nonsensical
Ultimately, whatever property conventions people voluntary decide to respect amongst each other is or should be acceptable for the voluntaryist. However, until there is a meeting of the minds between individuals concerning property conventions, how should conflicts over property claims be judged? In my opinion, they should be judged on the basis of original appropriation, and anything else is nonsensical.
I Will “Appropriate” Your Culture!
You have an entire planet, and hundreds of thousands of years (at least) of ideas and clothing and art to choose from. Pick the good. Reject the bad. Make yourself the best you can be.
Editor’s Break 027 – Cultural Appropriate Based on Bogus Intellectual Property (12m)
Editor’s Break 027 looks at the recent trend in decrying so-called “cultural appropriation” and why its really just [bogus] intellectual property in a cultural dress.
The Debate Over Taxation Cannot Be Value-Free
When anyone calls for a new tax or a tax increase, what that person wants is for government personnel to threaten force against anyone who fails to surrender his or her money to the state. But almost no one speaks in those terms. If tax advocates did that, their rhetoric at least would be honest (and only in that sense noble.) Instead, such people engage in base rhetoric.
Taxation is Theft! So… Tax the Government?
How long would it take, do you think, for government to learn to be more efficient (it has no incentive to do so currently, after all), or at least learn to spend money with more discretion and purpose?
Political Means and Economic Means
There are two fundamentally opposed means whereby man…is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires. These are work and robbery, one’s own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others… I propose… to call one’s own labor and the equivalent exchange of one’s own labor for the labor of others, the “economic means”… while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the “political means.”
A Dumb Cultural Narrative
No longer are people concerned with overt racism nor dignity of the individual. Today we are focused on the original sin of whites, the covert racism that leads to inequality of results, victim/predator narratives, cultural appropriation, etc.
Editor’s Break 025 – A Look at Georgism and Property Rights (15m)
Editor’s Break 025 is a quick look at Georgism, the political and economic philosophy that argues for tax on land because of its supposed special status as a finite resource. Is it compatible with human nature? Is it ethical? Is it better at reducing conflict over scarce resources than original appropriation?
Should Governments Even Try to Solve Problems?
Otto von Bismarck famously described politics as “the art of the possible, the attainable.” People who like politics love this sentiment. It suggests workable pragmatism rather than impractical principles, compromise over conviction, action rather than inaction. I find this sentiment both hypocritical and misleading.