Murray N. Rothbard

No action can be virtuous unless it is freely chosen.

There is no gainsaying the fact that this suggested program will strike most people as impossibly __adical_ and __nrealistic_; any suggestion for changing the status quo, no matter how slight, can always be considered by someone as too radical, so that the only thoroughgoing escape from the charge of impracticality is never to advocate any change whatever in existing conditions. But to take this approach is to abandon human reason, and to drift in animal- or plant-like manner with the tide of events.

The General Theory was not truly revolutionary at all but merely old and oft-refuted mercantilist and inflationist fallacies dressed up in shiny new garb, replete with newly constructed and largely incomprehensible jargon.

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a __ismal science._ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

Libertarians are not supposed to be egalitarians_ And yet there it is: egalitarianism has become the unspoken but very real driving force in the current Official movement. Once group egalitarianism becomes the norm, other groups than blacks will clamor for the privileges of __ictim status._ Sure enough, that jostling for victim privilege is now the major hallmark of American politics.The Official libertarians have so far not displayed enormous affinity for Latino or disabled __ights,_ but they are highly enthusiastic about the __ights_ of women and feminism generally. And in particular, libertarians have displayed great fervor for gay __ights_ and stress the evils of __iscrimination_ against gays. So ardently are libertarians devoted to gay rights that the word __ibertarian_ in the public press has now become almost a code word for champion of gay rights.Only his pro-gay agenda accounts for the ardor of Republican libertarians toward Massachusetts Governor Weld, whom they embrace as, in the current slogan, __iscally conservative but socially tolerant._ (The __iscally conservative_ refers to a one-time budget cut followed, the next time around, by a compensatory budget increase.) __ocially tolerant,_ in the current atmosphere, means a devotion to the entire Left cultural agenda, from gay rights to compulsory multicultural propaganda and condomization in the public schools.

Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism. Not only are they compatible, but you can't really have one without the other. True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism

It__ true: greed has had a very bad press. I frankly don__ see anything wrong with greed. I think that the people who are always attacking greed would be more consistent with their position if they refused their next salary increase. I don__ see even the most Left-Wing scholar in this country scornfully burning his salary check. In other words, "greed" simply means that you are trying to relieve the nature given scarcity that man was born with. Greed will continue until the Garden of Eden arrives, when everything is superabundant, and we don__ have to worry about economics at all. We haven__ of course reached that point yet; we haven__ reached the point where everybody is burning his salary increases, or salary checks in general.

Libertarianism holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal

The State obtains its revenue by coercion, by threatening dire penalties should the income not be forthcoming. That coercion is known as __axation,_ although in less regularized epochs it was often known as __ribute._ Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State__ inhabitants, or subjects.

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.

Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as in a state of impermissible __narchy_, why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighbourhood? Each block? Each house? Each person?

If the bulk of the public were really convinced of the illegitimacy of the State, if it were convinced that the State is nothing more nor less than a bandit gang writ large, then the State would soon collapse to take on no more status or breadth of existence than another Mafia gang.

While liberals are in favor of any sexual activity engaged in by two consenting adults, when these consenting adults engage in trade or exchange, the liberals step in to harass, cripple, restrict, or prohibit that trade. And yet both the consenting sexual activity and the trade are similar expressions of liberty in action.

Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State__ inhabitants, or subjects.

There are two and only two ways that any economy can be organized. One is by freedom and voluntary choice__he way of the market. The other is by force and dictation__he way of the State.

The very term __ublic utility_ _ is an absurd one. Every good is useful __o the public,_ and almost every good _ may be considered __ecessary._ Any designation of a few industries as __ublic utilities_ is completely arbitrary and unjustified.

I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual.

The first people to get the new money are the counterfeiters, which they use to buy various goods and services. The second receivers of the new money are the retailers who sell those goods to the counterfeiters. And on and on the new money ripples out through the system, going from one pocket or till to another. As it does so, there is an immediate redistribution effect. For first the counterfeiters, then the retailers, etc. have new money and monetary income they use to bid up goods and services, increasing their demand and raising the prices of the goods that they purchase. But as prices of goods begin to rise in response to the higher quantity of money, those who haven't yet received the new money find the prices of the goods they buy have gone up, while their own selling prices or incomes have not risen. In short, the early receivers of the new money in this market chain of events gain at the expense of those who receive the money toward the end of the chain, and still worse losers are the people (e.g., those on fixed incomes such as annuities, interest, or pensions) who never receive the new money at all.