The Complete Definition Of Property: An Excerpt from Propertarianism
[P]ropertarianism differs from Libertarianism by: 1) First, Propertarianism argues that the principle of involuntary transfer – a prohibition on not only fraud theft and violence — but also involuntary transfer in all its forms, including “cheating”, or privatization of the commons, is the boundary that determines ethical use of property, because it is how humans…
Mathematics vs Cinema As Tools For Explaining The Universe
?”Cinema can still explain the whole world. Mathematicians think it’s math. I believe it’s cinema.” – Jean-Luc Godard Mathematics can explain only what we cannot sense. That is why we have mathematics: to compensate for our limited ability to perceive the universe. However, human concepts must at some point be reduced to those stimuli which…
Illustrating The Meaning Of Liberty From A False Dichotomy 🙂
A Facebook friend asked this question. “What is your definition of liberty? Penniless in a free world, or wealthy in a corrupt one. Those are the choices that I give you. Without deviating from those two choices, what is your response? I dont understand the question yet…. First reply to your definition on liberty. Then…
Fixing A False Criticism: Libertarianism, Anarchy and Somalia
THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING PROPERTY RIGHTS WHERE THEY DO NOT EXIST IS STILL OPEN. [T]o start with, definitions help us communicate clearly. And they both force us to be honest, and prevent others from making false arguments against us. 1) Liberty is a sentiment. It is a minority sentiment. It is a sentiment held by…
Propertarianism As The Solution To The Problem Of Ethics
VS ROTHBARD: ARISTOCRATIC VERSUS GHETTO ETHICS [T]he aristocratic egalitarian ethic requires all able men capable of bearing arms, deny access to power, to anyone and everyone. I usually refer to this (erroneously) as the warrior ethic, since it originates with the Indo European warrior caste. The ethic of the bazaar or ghetto (incorrectly referred to…
Our Name Change: Propertarianism.com
[F]or the past tewlve years I’ve been working on political philosophy, and for the past three years, nearly full time. And now and then, as arguments evolve, I’ve updated the site to reflect the voice I’m currently using, and the position in the market for philosophy that I’m addressing. Over the past three years, my…
Property In Everything: The Source Of Egalitarian Sentiment
[T]he human moral sense is not so much egalitarian as that egalitarianism is the outcome of four competing instincts: the desire to constrain alphas, with the desire to be them, with the desire to breed them, with the desire to raise young who perpetuate our genes. We know that humans try to constrain alphas. We…
The Alternative To Bureaucratic Monopolistic Government : That Makes Communitarians Happy
[T]here is only one law, and that is property. If the different forms of property are understood: life, private property, common property, norms as property, and if the forms of theft are understood: risk transfer, indirect involuntary transfer, direct involuntary transfer, theft, fraud and violence, then no other law need exist, and people need be…
Natural Law Is An Attempt By The Weak Church To Obscure The Fact That The Source Of Property Is Violence.
[W]e are each born with a capacity for violence. Some more. Some less. During our lives we develop that capacity. Some more some less. Prior to the institution of property, this violence is one of our forms of wealth. We trade our wealth of violence in exchange for the institution of property. If our property…
I Didn’t Leave America. America Left Me.
?”[I] DIDN’T LEAVE AMERICA. AMERICA LEFT ME.” (( A reference to Regan’s statement ‘I didn’t leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.’ )) Any country that wants to demonize white males, is welcome to. I’m a libertarian: You’re welcome to do what you want, just not welcome to do what you want with…
Single Women Now Rule America
[S]INGLE WOMEN RULE AMERICA “President Obama won women by a 55 to 44 percent margin and lost men by a 45 to 52 percent margin, leaving an 18-point gender gap, up from 12 points in 2008. But this difference is dwarfed by the marriage gap—the margin between married and unmarried women. Married women supported the…
On Proximity To The Dark Enlightenment
THE DARK ENLIGHTENMENT [T]he novel concept that the enlightenment’s optimistic, heroic, equalitarian view of man has proven to be wrong, that the dirty secret of our genome project is that we are profoundly unequal, and that by consequence our civic religion based upon this error, as well as the political system that we use to…
Letter To Lew : On 30 Years Of The Mises Institute
I posted this on Mises.org in response to The First 30 Years of the Mises Institute [I] was terribly afraid that you would not make this change in direction, and am both excited and pleased that you have decided to. Rothbardian ethics specifically avoids the Protestant requirements for symmetry of information, and warrantee in any…
Freud Distracted Intellectual Progress As Much As Did Marx
FREUD WAS A FOOL AND AS MUCH OF AN INTELLECTUAL DISASTER FOR MANKIND AS MARX [H]umans are driven by status signals. The purpose of status signals may in fact INCLUDE access to reproduction, but that is only one of the may uses of signals. Without signals we cannot know whom to imitate. Without those signals…
Is Austrian Economics Falsifiable?
COMMENTS ON THE COMMENTS ABOVE 1) Falsification requires the failure of an empirical test, sufficient to contradict the theory. The purpose of falsification is to require us to rely on evidence that is unobtainable by our senses alone, and independent of the frailty and error of the mind and its perceptions. None of the criticisms…
“Women Do Everything Here” : The Absence of Chivalry In The Byzantines
“I cook, I clean, I work, and my husband sits on the couch demanding beer. Women do everything here. We want to be soft. But we can’t be.” – Nikka. [C]hivalry is yet another positive western value constructed by the church. I often write how the church granted women property rights, and forbid cousin-marriage out…
Why Should A Person Believe In Austrian Economics?
It is not a question of ‘belief’. There are five or six different strategic economic biases in favor of a different set of levers for encouraging an economy. These different levers vary from the fastest and most redistributive and distorting to the slowest, least redistributive and distorting. They are loosely Modern Monetary (fastest), Monetarism, Fiscal…
Is The “right To Die” A Human Right?
The question, as stated is irrational. One has the right to die, because one cannot have it taken away. If you want to die, and can act to kill yourself, there are a legion of ways to accomplish it. So, it’s not that suicide is difficult to accomplish nor that people fail to. Instead, it…
What Are “positive Rights”?
I’ve been asked to comment on this topic. I don’t think I can add much to what has been said here. But I will try to add some precision: A right is a thing that all people can grant to each other. Otherwise the term has no meaning. We cannot grant each other positives. We…
A Definition Of Libertarianism – Draft Two : From Intuitive Sentiment To Institutional Framework
Libertarianism lih-ber-tair’-ee-un-ih’-zum (noun) 1) SENTIMENT: A sentiment giving precedence to individual liberty above the competing sentiments of care-taking and order — which are the respective priorities of left and right. 2) POLITICAL BIAS: A range of political biases that express the precedence for liberty as the freedom from organized coercion through the minimization or elimination…
Trying To Define Libertarianism In One Hundred Words. (And Failing)
LIBERTARIANISM: 1) A sentiment giving precedence to individual liberty above care-taking and order. 2) A range of political biases that express that precedence as freedom from organized coercion through the minimization or elimination of monopolistic government — and therefore a reliance on the maximization of self organizing civic virtues and norms. 3) An institutional framework…
Startup Skills Vs Startup Ideas?
I’ve started eight companies, invested in about an equal number, and pitched more times than I can remember or count. The idea only matters if other investors are following it. Investors are sheep. They follow trends in business ideas because trends mean over-investment that they can participate in. Instead of ideas, they care about the…
How Sound Is The Process Of Providing Government Stimulus Based On Keynesian Economics In A Country With A Large Fiscal Deficit?
Bertil Hatt answers the question correctly. But I think I”ll try to add an answer to WHY that trust is necessary. I tend to criticize Keynesian advocates daily, Krugman included, for arguing under the pretense that people do not understand the Keynesian model and the value of Keynesian stimulus. It’s not that they don’t understand. …
Is There Any Independent, Third-party Research On The Fiscal Grievance Of Catalonia With Spain?
Joe: that’s not what the numbers mean.Catalonia represents 14% of the population and pays 22% of the taxes. The tax rate is both unfair, and harmful, since it is the one region of spain that might form an innovative industrial heartland, in southern Europe. Furthermore, Catalonias speak a slightly different language and have a distinct…
KRUGMAN Straw Man Of The Day : iPhone 5 Shows We Are All Keynesians?
Krugman’s straw man of the day uses discussions about the impact of the iPhone 5 release on the economy to suggest we are all Keynesians, and that government should spend more money. [callout] [/callout] But all actions have costs. And Americans have decided that the cost of funding expansion of government influence, power, and corruption…