You don’t have a right to be supplied goods and services. You do have a right to engage in voluntary commerce. I have a right to be left alone. When you attempt to force me to fund your consumption, you are violating my rights. When I refuse to go along with your scheme, I’m defending my rights, not violating yours.
Tag: rights
Violence
Self-defense or defense of property can be violent but isn’t aggressive since the other party “started it” by initiating force or violating property rights.
An Atelatheist Exposes the Religion of Statism
Yes, belief in the State results in buildings being built, people molested due to “laws”, and other physical effects in the real world, but those are no more proof of the existence of the State than churches, inquisitions, martyrs, or charities are proof of the existence of God. People who believe something do things based on that belief. Such is the nature of belief. Beliefs have effects on the behavior of people who believe, even when the belief is in something imaginary.
Hard-Won Homeschooling Freedoms Are Under Threat and Must Be Defended
I sometimes wonder about the courage it took those earlier homeschooling parents to remove their children from school before it was fully legal, to chart an alternative education path for their children when they were often the only ones on that road. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same courage.
It Isn’t Caesar’s Money; Taxation is Theft
Even if the money did originally belong to Caesar, once he trades it for a product or service it is no longer his, no matter whose picture is on it. If I paint a self-portrait and sell it for $10, the portrait no longer belongs to me. I can’t just go and take it and holler “Taxed!” and be in the right. It is no longer my property even if my picture is on it.
Anti-Gun Societies are Not “Civilized”
One non-negotiable mark of a civilized society is that it doesn’t interfere with the liberty or rights of those inside it. Anti-gun “laws” do interfere. They treat the residents as bad, stupid, helpless children.
First They Came for Backpage
In 2016, after a court slapped down the attempts of Kamala Harris (D-CA), then attorney general of her state and now a US Senator, to prosecute Backpage for “pimping,” I suggested that merely dismissing the charges was not enough. I am still of that opinion.
The Classical Liberal is a Dreamer
Classical liberalism does not disavow the state. Indeed, it embraces and celebrates it, but only, the classical liberals insist, in the form of “limited government.” This regime, sustained by taxation, includes legislators who enact rules, executives who control police and armed forces to enforce the rules, and judges who settle disputes between persons and between persons and the state. In many versions it also includes active engagement in the construction and maintenance of public works (now often called infrastructure) and a system of government schools (now often with compulsory attendance). The classical liberal imagines that this setup will support free markets and more generally a free society and that it can be sustained indefinitely.
Scott Adams on Guns
It is in every decent person’s self-interest to encourage gun ownership for everyone. Even if I go crazy and try to kill an innocent person, and they shoot me in self-defense, I completely support their right to do so. Maybe knowing they are armed would help keep me sane, or scare me into not attacking them even if I go nuts.
Keep Your Nose on Your Own Property
Neglecting to understand which things are your business, and which are not, causes many problems. People spend too much time with their noses in places where they don’t belong while ignoring things for which they are responsible.