It must be a fiction that the colonial man in the streets had any cohesive thought on the matter. The American Revolutionary War was promulgated by the landed gentry to protect their already-claimed advantages. They got the peasantry to fight and die, to freeze to death, to starve for the pretty abstraction of freedom. This war, like all others, was fought for the status quo. But-cept, how do I know?
Tag: taxation
Government Shutdown Notwithstanding
Economically speaking, government shutdowns do little harm to GDP. The economy quickly recovers after a budget is passed following a government shutdown. The claims from the left “the poor will go hungry” and from the right “the military will shut down” are purely partisan.
Some Still Waiting Return of Liberty
For decades I’ve had my doubts about whether America is still the land of the free. With rules and enforcers everywhere you look, it doesn’t seem so. I’ve been wrong. Most Americans are free — as free as they want to be.
A Crippling Lack of Imagination and Problem Solving
Here’s one of those (thankfully, rare) long reply posts. Someone had a problem with me not liking socialism/government and responded with a request for answers. So I did what I could.
On Intellectual Property III
The private property convention is meant to reduce conflict over naturally scarce resources. When something is made artificially scarce by government fiat, say when ideas are monopolizable (copyright and patent), it is as if a wrench is thrown into the works of a machine.
On Politics IV
The United States Federal Government currently threatens imprisonment for many behaviors it has deemed criminal but which do not have as a result the violation of any other person’s self-ownership or property rights (ie. victimless).
On the Violence Inherent in Voting
They vote because they think they know what’s best for their fellow citizens. What the voter doesn’t know is that they are culpable. They are personally responsible for the victims of their act of voting.
Foreign Policy III: AnCapistan
In my first article on foreign policy, I discussed normative foreign policy in the context of the United States Constitution. In the second article, I focused on a specific aspect of foreign policy when I posited that the United States should diplomatically recognize Liberland. In this article, I discuss “foreign policy” in a stateless society: “AnCapistan,” if you will.
Voluntaryist Solutions to the Public Benefits and Immigration Problem
What’s a voluntaryist, who is a person who recognizes the criminal nature of governments, to do about the problem of immigrants exploiting public benefits? There are several possible solutions to this problem, many of which are consistent with the voluntary principle, that all human relations should happen voluntarily, or not at all, and many of which are not.
Birthright Citizenship – Just and Justified
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. So says section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. With the impeccable timing we’re accustomed to, Donald Trump says he will sign an executive…