What is your favorite tool? Is it so familiar or compelling that you are tempted to employ it in all contexts? The law of the instrument illustrates this tendency.
Tag: property
“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.
A “Red Flag” for Your Rights; Yes, They’re Coming for Your Guns
The latest scheme from the gun grabbers is called “red flag” laws and, unlike most their other schemes, even nominally conservative pundits and publications are getting on board with this attempt to disarm certain people. That’s the trick, you see, the classic divide-and-conquer strategy that has worked in so many other cases. They don’t want to take away your guns, oh no, they just want to take away that guy’s guns. He’s kind of weird, anyway, right?
Laws Themselves a Senseless Crime
Droughts are a serious problem. They cause wildfires, dirt storms, crop failure, and they deplete the aquifer. Droughts are harmful and dangerous. Someone should do something! Why aren’t droughts illegal already?
Markets aren’t Miraculous; God Bless the World
I was wrong to ever describe anything the market does as a miracle or as miraculous. Why? Because the positive effects of markets broadly described above do not depend on any sort of divine intervention, and its totally ridiculous to say that they do. Rather, they are the natural result of individuals and groups engaging in market action. No divine explanation necessary.
Don’t Let Loved Ones Become Cops
They may have been a good person before they became a cop, but they can’t be good once they are a cop. A cop in the family is nothing to be proud of– almost anything else (including a crackhead or a $5 hooker) is better.
Government Not Designed to Help
No government has ever protected life, liberty, or property when it meant scaling back its own power. Expecting government to do so is like hopping in your family SUV expecting to drive it to Alpha Centauri. That’s not what it was designed to do, and not in the realm of possibility, no matter how much you wish it were.
Compounded Ignorance Leads to Hubris
A broken clock is correct twice a day, so the adage goes. I think I’m correct at least as often, possibly, hopefully, more. The other day I had an epiphany, of sorts, and shared it on Facebook. It went as follows: A person is mostly ignorant. People are ignorance compounded. Government is evidence of people’s hubris.
How the World Should Be
Yes, governing others is wrong. It is totally messed up. So I don’t do it. I don’t support it, contribute to it, or participate in it. I won’t attack others, nor take their stuff, not even through politics. I can’t make the whole world stop doing wrong, but I can try to make sure I’m not part of the problem.
Life Requires Labor, Either Your Own or Someone Else’s
The real distinction is between those who sustain their own existence and those whose existence is sustained by the labor of others. The latter category can be subdivided into those whose lives are sustained through the voluntary labor of others (i.e. charity) and those whose lives are sustained through coercion, force, violence, and theft.