Is the free market an individualist or collectivist social arrangement? Don’t answer too quickly. It’s a trick question.
Tag: money
A Way Out – Victory Without Violence
Written by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist, June 1989. Marshall Fritz of the Advocates for Self-Government recently loaned me a copy of John Yoder’s book, titled What Would You Do: If a Violent Person Threatened to Harm a Loved One… At dinner one evening, we were discussing the question of what I would do if an…
In Praise of Profit
In the last two weeks, I presented a defense of key libertarian concepts — the market, private property, and competition — in a way intended to make them palatable to people who believe in individual liberty yet have something like an aesthetic aversion to the market economy. Today let’s examine profit, another concept that has an unpleasant taste for some people who might otherwise be attracted to libertarianism.
The Criminality of the State
Written by Albert Jay Nock for the American Mercury, March, 1939. As well as I can judge, the general attitude of Americans who are at all interested in foreign affairs is one of astonishment, coupled with distaste, displeasure, or horror, according to the individual observer’s capacity for emotional excitement. Perhaps I ought to shade this…
Do You Know a Child Who Wants To Start a Business?
Written by Marsha Friedman for LewRockwell.com. Mark, a hugely successful businessman by any measure, got his start at just 9 years old. He earned enough money to buy his own clothes, his bicycles and, eventually, to pay his way through college. He says that kind of success is available to any creative, industrious child today.…
Alex R. Knight, III
“Toward Freedom” is an Everything-Voluntary.com series sharing personal stories about the journey toward freedom. Archived stories can be found here. Submit your story to the editor. Originally published at Voluntaryist.com. The first time I remember even seeing the word “libertarian,” was in 1994, when I was twenty-five. Years prior to that, like most kids, I…
Make Money, Not War!
Guest post by Lorne Strider. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, June 1988. I have argued that business people, those who create and produce wealth, are acting morally, and that people who pretend to act in the public interest, i.e., government people, are the bad guys whose actions not only create no wealth, but actually destroy…
Trust Government, Not the Free Market
Guest post by Richard J. Maybury. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, June 1988. All this talk about liberty is exciting, but let’s get serious for a moment. The evidence shows clearly that liberty does not work. Many things are too important to be left to the whims of the free market. Imagine the chaos if…
Some Critical Considerations on the US Constitution
Guest post by Carl Watner. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, February 1988. The Constitution is one of the most revered symbols of the United States. Over the years, it has taken on all the trappings of sovereignty, commanding the loyalty of almost every American. The Constitution is “America’s uncrowned king,” because “it is above party,…
Re: Principles of Secession
Writes Michael Suede: [There] are a great many people who feel that the amount of money, resources and liberties that the federal government is taking from them greatly outweigh any possible benefits that they may be deriving from the federal state. From their perspective, it would be better to have more accountable local governments control…