I just started reading Henry Hazlitt’s The Conquest of Poverty and before I got too far I wanted to jot down some thoughts I’ve had on the subject. As Hazlitt states in his very first line, “The history of poverty is almost the history of mankind… Poverty was the normal lot.” I would observe that…
Tag: society
The Vision is Everything
So I go to the future. I think – I am so happy to live in a world without slavery in the way that it used to exist — I’m so happy to live in that world – and the first people who started talking about there being no slavery, were like us… And the…
What is a Libertarian?
A person on a forum I frequently visit asked the group about what a libertarian truly is, since he didn’t believe in natural rights or the non-aggression principle. For the record, he was opposed to tyranny and the government through Biblical support and his spiritual/religious beliefs. The anti-government attitude was there, but the motivation is completely…
Re: A Moral Challenge
I am getting increasingly frustrated because so very few seem to comprehend my moral argument that taxation is theft. Even members of my own family don’t seem to get it. It appears to me that there are two components to the argument that taxation is theft.First is the moral argument: If you define theft as…
Re: A Parental Right?
I have to say, I share Idzie D.’s feeling of uneasiness when I hear the term “parental rights”. It’s a great term when considering parental rights relative to the state, but relative to children, we should tread very lightly. My voluntaryist journey only recently lead me to consider more and more the rights of children.…
Re: The Role of War in a Voluntaryist Society
Thank you Ben for that excellent essay on Just War Theory and voluntaryism. Murray Rothbard wrote a piece on libertarian theory of war that I’d like to add to your argument. An excerpt: The fundamental axiom of libertarian theory is that no one may threaten or commit violence (“aggress”) against another man’s person or property.…
Re: Born to Explore
Too often we (society) bring kids to places they shouldn’t be brought, and then restrict their curiosity. They learn something with that, something bad, methinks. We made a new rule recently, if we bring our kids somewhere, we’ll let them do as they please, so long as they don’t damage anything, or themselves. If it…
Government Laid Bare
The true nature of Government laid bare in one masterful paragraph… It is time now to bring the State into our discussion. The State is a group of people who have managed to acquire a virtual monopoly of the use of violence throughout a given territorial area. In particular, it has acquired a monopoly of…
Whose Interest Prevails?
A thought I’ve had recently, “whose interests should prevail, the parent’s or the child’s?” Take a couple without any children. The man wants to go see this movie, the woman wants to go see that movie. Whose interest prevails? Obviously, their interests are deeper than what movie to see. They both want to keep each…
What Can Voluntaryists Do Now?
Written by Skyler J. Collins. Josh Freeman asks, “What are some actions, or some guidelines, that we can implement NOW in order to live life in accord with our principles? In the journey toward a completely voluntary society, what are the first steps that I, as an individual, can take in order to achieve that…