People should be legally free to argue for any viewpoint, no matter how “obviously” false and even reprehensible, in order to protect society from being enslaved to a popular but untrue belief. ―Robert P. Murphy
Tag: Austrian economists
If landlords can’t charge a market rate, they’ll cut corners to maintain profitability. Because rent controls encourage landlords to reduce their maintenance expenses, apartments in rent controlled areas aren’t painted as often, repairs aren’t made as quickly, graffiti doesn’t get erased as quickly, and the washer/dryers in the basement don’t get replaced when they break down.
Under rent control, there are no market penalties for shoddy service because there is a long line of potential tenants. Thus rent control does not eliminate but rather creates “slumlords” who in a market system would have to compete to attract and retain tenants.
—Robert P. Murphy
If an employer has an opening that pays $50,000 in salary, and the Christian applicant will bring in $51,000 in extra revenue to the firm while the Muslim applicant will bring in $55,000, then to discriminate against the creed of the latter will cost the employer $4,000 in potential profits. Discrimination is automatically “fined” in the free market. — Bob Murphy
The history of government is the history of violence, of the strong plundering the weak. Wicked tyrants engage in orgies of violence; being rulers they could give free rein to all their desires. —Murray Rothbard
Over 40,000 people die on the nation’s roadways every year, and you or a loved one might one day join this horrid list.
Do not be mislead by the oft made contention that the actual cause of highway fatalities is speed, drunkenness, vehicle malfunction, driver error, etc. These are only proximate causes. The ultimate cause of our dying like flies in traffic accidents is that those who own and manage these assets supposedly in the name of the public—the various roads bureaucrats—cannot manage their way out of the proverbial paper bag. It is they and they alone who are responsible for this carnage.
This does not mean that were thoroughfares placed in private hands that the death toll would be zero. It would not. But, at least, every time the life of someone was tragically snuffed out, someone in a position to ameliorate these dangerous conditions would lose money, and this tends, wonderfully, to focus the minds of the owners. This is why we do not have similar problems with bananas, baskets, and bicycles, and the myriad of other goods and services supplied to us by a (relatively) free enterprise system.
—Walter Block
- Secede from intellectual isolation. Talk to friends, family, and neighbors to spread liberty.
- Secede from dependency. Become self-sufficient with regards to food, water, fuel, cash, firearms, and physical security.
- Secede from mainstream media. Ditch cable, ditch CNN, and ditch the major newspapers.
- Secede from state control of your children by homeschooling or unschooling them.
- Secede from college by rejecting mainstream academia and its student loan trap.
- Secede from the US dollar by owning physical precious metals, by owning assets denominated in foreign currencies, and by owning assets abroad.
- Secede from the federal tax and regulatory regimes. Be as tax efficient as possible.
- Secede from the legal system by legally protecting your assets from probate courts.
- Secede from the state healthcare racket by taking control of your health, and questioning medical orthodoxy.
- Secede from your state by moving to another with a better tax and regulatory environment.
- Secede from political uncertainly in the US by obtaining a second passport; or secede from the US altogether by expatriating.
- Most of all, secede from the mindset that government is all-powerful or too formidable an opponent to be overcome.
All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff Deist
- Secede from intellectual isolation. Talk to friends, family, and neighbors to spread liberty.
- Secede from dependency. Become self-sufficient with regards to food, water, fuel, cash, firearms, and physical security.
- Secede from mainstream media. Ditch cable, ditch CNN, and ditch the major newspapers.
- Secede from state control of your children by homeschooling or unschooling them.
- Secede from college by rejecting mainstream academia and its student loan trap.
- Secede from the US dollar by owning physical precious metals, by owning assets denominated in foreign currencies, and by owning assets abroad.
- Secede from the federal tax and regulatory regimes. Be as tax efficient as possible.
- Secede from the legal system by legally protecting your assets from probate courts.
- Secede from the state healthcare racket by taking control of your health, and questioning medical orthodoxy.
- Secede from your state by moving to another with a better tax and regulatory environment.
- Secede from political uncertainly in the US by obtaining a second passport; or secede from the US altogether by expatriating.
- Most of all, secede from the mindset that government is all-powerful or too formidable an opponent to be overcome.
All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff Deist
Imagine what a committed, coordinated libertarian base could achieve in America! Ten percent of the US population, or roughly thirty-two million people, would be an unstoppable force of non-violent withdrawal from the federal leviathan. —Jeff Deist
History is not going to be kind to liberals. With their mindless programs, they’ve managed to do to Black Americans what slavery, reconstruction, and rank racism found impossible: destroy their family and work ethic. —Walter Williams
It takes a bold person to be for personal liberty because you have to be able to cope with people saying things and engaging in voluntary acts that you deem offensive. —Walter Williams
In government, the worse an agency performs, the more money it can claim from a legislature. If state-run schools fail to educate children, then obviously they need more money… If the welfare state fails to reduce, or actually increases, poverty then obviously, say the bureaucrats, we need to expand welfare programs even further. —Thomas DiLorenzo, The Problem with Socialism