Walter E. Block | The Libertarian Institute

Should We Allow U.S. Land to Be Sold to the Chinese?

by Walter E. Block | Sep 21, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Admittedly, this idea sounds bad. Both "sell out” and “selling out” have a bad odor to them. Rather, we should “stand firm!” And there is nothing like perking up that patriotic spirit that compares to bashing supposed foreign enemies. However, there are deep and dire problems with this attempt at demagoguery. First of all, there is simply no mention in the U.S. Constitution, let alone prohibition of, selling land to foreigners. We have been doing so since practically the beginning of our country. A relatively recent high-profile case in point is the sale of Rockefeller Center in New York...

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Wall Street Journal

by Walter E. Block | Jun 1, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The Wall Street Journal of March 31, 2023 (page A20, if you must know) featured this headline: “Turkey’s Parliament Ratifies NATO bid.” Here is the first paragraph of this entry: “The Turkish parliament ratified Finland’s entrance into the NATO on Thursday, removing the last obstacle to a historic expansion of the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” [Emphasis Added] Waitasec. If event B is a response to event A, A must necessarily come first in time, B only afterward. If B occurs first, this event can hardly be considered a response to A. Let us do a little bit of history...

Which Aspect of Government Do Anarcho-Capitalists Favor?

by Walter E. Block | Mar 21, 2023 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

The short answer to that question, and an accurate one, is none of the above. That is the very definition of this philosophical perspective: the state is merely a gang of robbers and murderers, and the ideal is to banish it entirely. States Mr. Libertarian on this matter: “…if you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place." However, there is indeed an entirely different and also a proper way to answer that question: whichever aspect of it is most...

Can Wage Transparency Fix the Pay Gap?

by Walter E. Block | Jan 4, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

Will wage transparency reduce or eliminate the pay gap between men and women? Yes and no. Let’s take the no side first. Wage transparency will not reduce or eliminate this pay gap because it emanates from real differences in productivity (actually discounted marginal revenue productivity, but we’re going to keep it simple, here). That is to say, there is an economic law that maintains that wages tend to reflect productivity. What is productivity? That is the amount by which you increase your employer’s bottom line for every hour you are on the assembly line, or shop floor, or driving a truck...

Graffiti vs. Property Rights

by Walter E. Block | Nov 14, 2022 | Featured Articles

A recent headline screamed out: “New York Judge Awards $6.7 Million To 21 Graffiti Artists For Destroyed Murals." That might be right. There is an actual law on the books which could support such a judicial finding. Alternatively, the award was possibly made for a contract violation pertaining to graffiti! It might thus be incorrect to blame Judge Frederic Block (no relation to the present author) for denigrating private property rights in favor of graffiti artists who trespass with their paint on buildings owned by other people. What is the story behind this brouhaha? Jerry Wolkoff is the...

Why the GOP Should Be Nicer to the LP

by Walter E. Block | Oct 25, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

Full disclosure: I have been a member of the Libertarian Party ever since 1969 when I ran for New York State Assembly, two years before the creation of the national party in 1971. But I hold no office with them and cannot speak for them. Marc Victor is not going to win the 2022 senatorial campaign in Arizona. The best prognostications are that he’ll only garner some 15% of the vote! So why write about him? Simple: he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but a third party Libertarian candidate poised to “ruin” yet another election, at least from the perspective of the latter. Needless to...

When Giveaways Are Legal, But Commerce Is Not

by Walter E. Block | Oct 12, 2022 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism

Lieutenant Kirk Thibodeaux is a Louisiana state trooper in otherwise good standing. He is a member of the Transportation Safety Services/Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section. While attending a conference on vehicle safety in South Dakota, this officer of the law was accused of soliciting a prostitute, and was arrested for that crime. He is now on administrative leave from his job back in the Pelican State. Comedian Red Buttons famously made a career out of saying, “Strange things are happening.” He might have had this Louisiana state trooper in mind when he did so. What are the anomalies?...

Don’t Blame Private Police for Public Errors

by Walter E. Block | Sep 26, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

There have been many calls of late to “defund the police.” None of them have been aimed at the private police. All of them have been targeted at the public sector, governmental police. Are these demands justified? Not very. Yes, there are more than a few bad apples in the long thin blue line. This goes, undoubtedly but to a much lesser extent, for private police forces as well. There always are some problems with large staffs with numerous employees. There are in the United States some 900,000 full time police officers, and almost 100,000 part timers, employed at all three national, state...