I have a comment on a point of libertarian theory in connection with the new Harry Potter book, but it is a SPOILER, so I’ve placed it in the comments section.
Tax Rebels of Mars
No, I’m not suggesting that we should tax the Rebels of Mars website.
But Paul Pope, the man responsible for putting Ludwig von Mises in a Batman comic, has a new libertarian comic out – apparently the latest in a series about, well, tax rebels on Mars.
Make Business As Honest As Politics!
In 1891, Edward Bellamy suggested that the American people should “assume through their salaried agents the conduct of industry as they have already (in this country) assumed the conduct of political affairs.” He explained:
The president, governor, and mayor do not make a profit on the business of the nation, State, or city, as employers do upon the industries which they manage. These and all other public officials receive salaries only, as agents, the business being conducted for the benefit of the people as the principals. … There is no more sense in permitting the industrial affairs of this country to be run for private profit than there would be in allowing their political affairs to be so exploited. (Quoted in Benjamin Tucker’s Instead of a Book, pp. 473-474.)
Okay, so they didn’t have the term “rent-seeking” back then. But surely they had the concept?
The Rebirth of LIBERTY
[cross-posted at Liberty & Power]
1. Shawn Wilbur is God!
He has just completed posting the entire run of Benjamin Tucker’s Liberty in PDF form. Details here.
At the height of its popularity Liberty had a circulation of perhaps 600. Now, thanks to Shawn, it is accessible to millions worldwide.
The interface is bare-bones at the moment, but Shawn has plans for text-search capacity and other cool stuff.
As he urges: “download, download, download!” to ensure that “there is never again any question of Liberty not being available.”
I’ve also hailed the advent of Liberty on the Mises Blog.
2. Another gift from Shawn Wilbur: a list of Proudhon texts available on Google Books.
You may ask: What’s so special about that? Can’t anyone compile such a list by going to Google Books and doing an author search on Proudhon?
No. Having tussled with the unpredictable quirks of Google Books myself, I can sympathise with the woes Shawn describes here and here.
3. On an entirely unrelated topic, those planning to attend the Alabama Philosophical Society may need a reminder that the deadline for submitting a paper is just over two weeks away.
Party Like It’s 1979
Catch a quick glimpse of an original-series style Cylon behind Adama in this teaser for Razor, the upcoming Galactica tv-movie / season premiere.
Return of the Left
Good news! The Left-libertarian blog aggregator, down since July 13th for a server switch, is now back up (with many backed-up pages of aggregation to look through).
I didn’t put this post on the Left-libertarian feed because if you’re reading Left-libertarian.org you already know it’s back up.