Editor’s Pick. Written by Robert Higgs. I can understand why someone might embrace classical liberalism. I did so myself more than forty years ago. People become classical liberals for two main reasons, which are interrelated: first, because they come to understand that free markets “work” better than government-controlled economic systems in providing prosperity and domestic…
Tag: citizens
The Ideal of Informed Consumerism
Editor’s Pick. Written by Connor Boyack. The government destroys informed consumerism when they prevent … consumers from making their own choices and reaping whatever consequences may come. A state that treats its citizens like adults must step out of the way and allow them to ingest what they please, provided nobody else’s rights are violated…
The Right to Ignore the State
Editor’s Pick. Written by Herbert Spencer. As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outlawry. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes…
Accord, Living For The Present, and Recalibrating
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. What…
The Myth of Market Failure
In the language of economics, a market failure is, as David Friedman writes, “a situation where each individual correctly chooses the action that best accomplishes his objectives, yet the result is worse, in terms of those same objectives, than if everyone had done something else.” As a rule, the pursuit of individual good in the market brings no such negative result. On the rare occasions when rational individual actions lead to regret by those same individuals, the result is labeled “market failure.”
The Rules Don’t Apply To The State
Editor’s Pick. Written by Michael Suede. One of the fascinating things about the state is its ability to get away with crimes that normal citizens would be imprisoned or executed for. In a world awash in rules and regulations, I find it fascinating that virtually none of the rules apply to the people who are…
Why Do People Submit to Governments?
Editor’s Pick. Written by Mark Stoval for his personal blog. One of the most important insights is that all political states, benign or tyrannical, exist on a foundation of popular consent. The state is a coercive, aggressive monopoly managed by a committee of armed parasites. Rothbard’s “gang of thieves writ large”. Governments are populated by…
No Matter What You Hear About it, Unschooling is Not All Unicorns and Rainbows
Send her mail. “Living with Wild Abandon” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Tuesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Breezy V. Stevens. Breezy is a long-time radical unschooler, an advocate for children’s rights, a crazy dog lady, a crafter in various mediums, a lover of all things tropical and beachy, and the designer of “EVC…
You Are An Anarchist. The Question Is: How Often?
Written by Benjamin Powell for FEE.org. Classical liberals have long debated whether they should support a minimal state or no state at all. Unfortunately that debate is usually framed as an all-or-nothing proposition. Either you believe that “a minimal state is everywhere and always necessary” or that a “state everywhere and always does more harm…
Socialism is Incompatible With Liberty
Written by Derek H. for Simple Facts and Plain Arguments. Opponents of free markets claim that the economy needs to be “directed” or “managed,” usually toward some kind of vague social goal or “common good.” In other words, we sacrifice some economic liberty for personal liberty. However, this belief in socialism – and I’m defining…