Do you notice a pattern when dealing with any aspect of the government at nearly any level? We all have. Experience shows that if something is going to go really wrong, predictably waste your time, annoy you and attack your dignity, and finally just prove to be totally ineffective at accomplishing the task, there’s a good chance that it involves the government. This is one of the most persistent and yet least acknowledged features of modern life.
Tag: prohibition
Taxation Isn’t Only Theft, It’s Destruction
Where the state is, there also is the growth of the state. Why does a state’s scope enlarge? One theory is that interest groups seek to use the state’s taxing power for their own benefit. I would like to suggest a complementary theory. When the power to tax is conferred upon rulers, many harmful incentives necessarily are conveyed with it. These encourage the rulers to expand their destructive acts.
The Non-Aggression Principle isn’t Mystical
The non-aggression principle (NAP) isn’t some magical or mystical moral code handed down by a deity or discovered in ancient ruins, it’s derived from logic and reason
Think of a Prospective Politician or a Proposed Bill as a Bowl of Skittles
My position on things is actually pretty simple. I believe that it’s wrong to hurt people and to take their stuff. The state (i.e. the government) exists to hurt people and to take their stuff. Every state, in every place, and at every point in history has done these things.
Save the Elephants! … by Owning Them
Were I presented with the opportunity to become the Al Capone of the ivory trade, never would the temptation be as strong as now. Governments are immensely successful at making products under prohibition enormously valuable.
On Profits
As lamentable as profit is for some people, the state can only guarantee it for some while denying it for others. If profits are taxed away, then the state is guaranteeing it for themselves and their constituents. If production is prohibited or made more costly, then the state is guaranteeing it for those who aren’t…
The Philosophy of Voluntaryism
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original column appearing most Mondays at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. Philosophy is, etymologically, the “love of wisdom”. One of the best ways I’ve read to define wisdom is this saying, “Knowledge…
Enemies of the State, in Memoriam
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original column appearing most Mondays at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. This (and every) Memorial Day, I would like to reverse its purpose from a day of remembrance for those whose lives…
We Can Oppose Bigotry without the Politicians
Should the government coercively sanction business owners who, out of apparent religious conviction, refuse to serve particular customers? While such behavior is repugnant, the refusal to serve someone because of his or her race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is nevertheless an exercise of self-ownership and freedom of nonassociation.
A Simple Request
In my experience the primary reason why individuals reject libertarian philosophy is because they are unwilling to tolerate the notion that free people may engage in activity of which they don’t approve. They imagine that the world would be “better” without gambling, alcohol, drugs, pornography, prostitution, violent video games, guns, knives, single-parent households, trans fats,…