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.

 Articles, Economics, Libertarian Theory, Market Anarchy  Tagged with: , ,

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.

 Articles, Economics, Libertarian Theory, Market Anarchy  Tagged with: , ,

Government Against the Poor

 Posted by Michael Wiebe at 6:35 pm  13 Responses »
Nov 292008
 

Whenever I am arguing with someone over the merits and morality of anarchism versus the horrible tragedy of statism, I am almost always confronted with the inevitable question: “What about the poor?” These ignorant statists (I’ve yet to find one aware of economics) are operating under the assumption that the government helps the poor, and so a stateless society would therefore leave the poor worse off. This assumption is false.

First off, let’s be generous and assume that the government actually has the intention to help the poor. That is, the government is genuinely working to reduce poverty and not just padding the bank accounts of state-allied business (note that most politicians are also businessmen). However, we all know a certain road that is paved with good intentions. They key is to look at the effects of government programs, not just the intentions. Do they really help the poor? Keep reading...

 Libertarian Theory, Market Anarchy, The State  Tagged with: , , , , , ,