I ran across a letter to the editor written in response to a libertarian’s letter. This raving statist’s letter was a treat to behold. Rarely have I witnessed this much dishonesty in such a small space. Kudos to him!
Tag: government
Rule by Majority Unfair to Minority
Allegiance to a group shouldn’t be assumed, mandatory, or dependent on where you live. Let people choose their own groups, and let the groups’ territories overlap the way those of clubs or churches do. Let people switch between groups, or opt out, as their needs and circumstances change.
North Korea: Pelosi versus Peace
In her official statement on Trump’s Singapore summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi makes it clear that a few million incinerated human beings a small price to pay to keep the 68-year-old Korean War going. Maybe not forever, but at least until there’s a Democrat in the White House.
Be a Jedi–Understand Force
If you start looking for ways to justify initiating force, out of “necessity,” it is a path which leads away from the light side into the dark side. Follow this path often enough, and despite your best intentions, you’ll become a real-life Sith.
Why Try To Justify Slavery?
Nothing can give anyone the right or the “authority” to prohibit guns or to otherwise enslave people, so there’s no reason to seek justifications for either act. The money thus spent is wasted, and the money was stolen to begin with.
The Cost of Dependency
Instead of dropping the taxi business and its precious “medallions” like a rotting gopher, the drivers are killing themselves. Can they not imagine a way of life without their expensive government monopoly? If liberty is killing the taxi monopoly, as they claim, why not adapt and start driving for one of the other options? Why demand a place on the sinking ship?
The Voluntaryist Ethnicity
As my family has traveled the country and met or stayed with other voluntaryists and unschoolers, I can’t help but notice certain general customs among people and families of this kind. Without putting anybody in a box or limiting how it is expressed or experienced, here is the voluntaryist ethnicity as I’ve seen it.
“Nothing” is Best Government Activity
There is one thing government could do that I will support. One thing I believe it needs to spend more time doing. It’s the one thing government can do best, the one thing government can do that will actually help, and the only thing that can justify taxation.
State Capacity is Sleight of Hand
While good social outcomes all tend to go together, the state capacity literature fails to show that government is the crucial factor that makes all the others possible. Indeed, as far as I can tell, existing empirics are quite consistent with Sutton’s Law that people rob banks because “that’s where the money is.”
Smokey Bear: Enemy Agent
Smokey Bear and his propaganda campaign illustrate the danger of government perfectly. Use a memorable way to promote bad policy. The bad policy then causes damage which makes the original problem worse, which causes people to believe government (and its bad policy) is necessary to protect from the consequences of government policy.