Humans ARE Smarter than Yeast

Michael Wiebe

I'm an anarchist, atheist, Austrian, agorist autodidact.

Carl Menger Essay Contest Winner!

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 12:12 pm 4 Responses »

Oct 162010

My paper “Toward an Anarchist Constitutional Political Economy” was selected as a winner of the 2010 Carl Menger Essay Contest. Here’s the announcement on Coordination Problem. Here’s a copy of the paper. It’s still a work in progress, so comments are welcome! Here’s the abstract:

I locate the theory of market anarchism within the tradition of constitutional political economy. The paradox of government (a government strong enough to enforce rights is also strong enough to violate them) creates the necessity of constitutional constraints on power. I show how market anarchism is the best solution to the paradox of government. Market competition is the strongest form of checks and balances, so market anarchism is the logical conclusion of constitutionally limited government.

The paper is heavily influenced by Roderick Long’s paper “Market Anarchism as Constitutionalism” and chapters 12 and 13 of Randy Barnett’s book The Structure of Liberty.

I’ll be presenting the paper at the Southern Economic Association Meetings in Atlanta on Nov. 20-22.

Roderick Long on the Non-Aggression Principle as Golden Mean

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 12:25 am No Responses »

Jun 062010

The Non-Aggression Principle is the foundation of libertarianism. It forbids aggression, i.e., the initiation of force against others. While there are many different justifications for the NAP, the simplest argument is an appeal to commonsense morality: we should deal with other people through reason and persuasion rather than violence and coercion.

In his article “The Irrelevance of Responsibility,” Roderick Long presents an Aristotelian Golden Mean justification of the NAP. He argues that a flourishing human life requires striking a balance between the subhuman and the superhuman. Since reason is the essential human trait, a truly human life requires relating to others through persuasion. Dealing with others through force is subhuman; but refusing to use force against aggressors is superhuman. Thus the NAP—using force only in defense—represents a Golden Mean between the extremes of subhuman aggression and superhuman pacifism.

What follows is an excerpt from Long’s article (p. 119, 121-124). Keep reading...

February Market Anarchist Blog Carnival

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 10:01 pm 3 Responses »

Feb 282009

Good morning and welcome to the February, 2009 edition of the Market Anarchist Blog Carnival.

David Gross presents Like the withered stalk of a cattail posted at The Picket Line. David argues that there is growing awareness of the corruption in the central institutions of authority — government, economy, media, etc.

Andrew Q presents A Libertarian Defense of Property Redistribution posted at Capital Goods. He discusses Carson and Rothbard’s arguments on land theft and property redistribution.

Andrew Q also presents A Critique of Agorism posted at Capital Goods. Agorism is a novel strategy and merits further debate and discussion.

Scott Hughes presents What Freedom Means to Me posted at Philosophy Forums.

Francois Tremblay presents History is written by the idiots posted at Check Your Premises. He discusses the teaching of history and cautions anarchists in their choice of media.

John Petrie presents Toy lead-content regulations hurt small toy makers posted at Blagnet.net. Unsurprisingly, government regulations benefit big business while screwing the little guy.

John Petrie also presents Saving is good, not bad, for American economy posted at Blagnet.net. John discusses the ecognorance of Keynesian pump-priming and the vilification of saving.

David Z presents Legalize ALL Drugs posted at No Third Solution.

Continuing with drug prohibition, see my article The Case Against Drug Prohibition. Not only is prohibition ineffective, but it causes crime, corruption, and increases the risk of overdosing.

That’s all for this edition, which will be the last due to a lack of interest. Thanks to everyone who submitted.

Market Anarchist Blog Carnival – Call for Submissions

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 7:39 pm 1 Response »

Feb 032009

I will be hosting the February edition of the Market Anarchist Blog Carnival. The Carnival is designed to promote pro-market or anti-state ideas by collecting articles from Market Anarchist blogs.

Check out the January edition, hosted at Democracy Sucks.

Send your submissions here before Feb. 28. Pro-market or anti-state viewpoints only.

This is going to be the last edition, due to a lack of interest, so send in your best writing. Let’s make this the greatest Market Anarchist Carnival of them all!

New Article – The Case Against Gun Control

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 6:14 pm 17 Responses »

Jan 272009

I’ve uploaded a new article – The Case Against Gun Control.

Here’s the abstract:

Gun control violates the right of individuals to control their own property. It also violates economic law. Enforcement of gun control creates incentives to produce guns on the black market. Gun control causes crime and corruption, whereas gun ownership actually deters crime, and is a check against tyrannical government. In a free society, weapons can be controlled through voluntary, peaceful means.

I wrote this after reading John Lott’s More Guns, Less Crime. I wasn’t impressed with his empirical approach, so my goal was to build a case against gun control based on economic principles and theoretical, a priori arguments.

New Article – The Case Against Drug Prohibition

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 11:49 am 3 Responses »

Jan 272009

I’ve uploaded another article – The Case Against Drug Prohibition.

Here’s the abstract:

Prohibition violates the right of individuals to control their own bodies, and violates economic law. Any increased enforcement of prohibition creates greater incentives to produce drugs. Prohibition causes crime and corruption. It increases the potency and reduces the quality of drugs, causing consumption-related deaths. The solution to drug abuse is not aggressive violence, but voluntary cooperation.

This article is primarily based on the arguments from Mark Thornton’s The Economics of Prohibition (PDF here). I was also inspired by Milton Friedman’s arguments in his interview on drugs. I think readers will be most surprised by the arguments that prohibition is self-defeating and increases the potency of drugs.

New Article – The Case for Free Trade

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 11:43 am No Responses »

Jan 272009

Here’s the first article from my new articles section – The Case for Free Trade.

Here’s the abstract:

Free trade is both morally and practically superior to protectionism. First, protectionism violates the right of individuals to engage in voluntary exchange. Second, specialization and trade are beneficial whenever there is absolute or comparative advantage between individuals. Finally, protectionism is a negative-sum game: it makes everyone worse off, including the “protected” industries.

For those readers familiar with the Paul Craig Roberts/capital mobility debate, I’d like to know what you think of my critique (in the “Objections” section).

New Articles page

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 6:08 am No Responses »

Jan 272009

Check out the new Articles page for “Systematic, timeless, and comprehensive expositions of libertarian philosophy.”

My goal is to create a one-stop resource where someone can learn the main tenets of libertarian anarchism. One of the problems with the libertarian movement is that it is lacking an “argument database” where a newbie can find the answer to every one of their questions. Sure there are websites like Libertarian Nation and Mises.org, or books like Human Action and Man, Economy, and State, but the reader still has to do a lot of work putting the pieces of the puzzle together. I want to present a systematic, step-by-step analysis of the premises and conclusions of both libertarian and statist arguments. By doing the heavy lifting, hopefully I can shorten the learning curve and multiply the progress of the libertarian movement (at least concerning education).

There are no comments in the Articles section, so I will make a blog post for each article, where you can comment.

My first three articles are up:

I plan to write future articles on: price controls, the case against monopoly, education, roads, health care, money, courts and police, and more.

Fallacies of the Button-Pushing Question

Posted by Michael Wiebe at 9:36 pm 2 Responses »

Jan 262009

“The true test, then, of the radical spirit, is the button-pushing test: if we could push the button for instantaneous abolition of unjust invasions of liberty, would we do it? If we would not do it, we could scarcely call ourselves libertarians, and most of us would only do it if primarily guided by a passion for justice. The genuine libertarian, then, is, in all senses of the word, an “abolitionist”; he would, if he could, abolish instantaneously all invasions of liberty, whether it be, in the original coining of the term, slavery, or whether it be the manifold other instances of State oppression. He would, in the words of another libertarian in a similar connection, ‘blister my thumb pushing that button!’” – Murray N. Rothbard, “Why Be Libertarian?“

The button-pushing question is the test of radicalism and consistency. Being an abolitionist is what it means to be a libertarian. As libertarians we must advocate the instantaneous abolition of injustice, because any form of gradualism in theory means legitimizing the continuation of injustice.

But some have objected that pushing the button would be a mistake. If people still believe government is necessary, they argue, then another government will simply take over, and the resulting chaos will negate any possible gains. Keep reading...