Political Theory

Our present institutional arrangements are characterized as socialistic.

"You libertarians are really nuts. … Why depend on the willy-nilly whims of some capitalist exploiter when the state is there to provide this wonderful service for free?"

Pages 1-10 in the text.

Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

Whether one calls oneself a Communist, Socialist, New Dealer, or just plain "democrat," one begins with the premise that the individual is of consequence only as a servant of the mass idol.

Central economic planning and laissez-faire capitalism are completely incompatible concepts — by definition.

Konkin cripples libertarian effectiveness by creating moral problems where none exist: by indicting as nonlibertarian or nonmarket a whole slew of institutions necessary to the triumph of liberty: organization, hierarchy, wage work, granting of funds by libertarian millionaires, and a libertarian political party.

Study of the past, it is assumed, discloses the shape of things to come. Any attempt to reverse or even to stop a trend is doomed to failure.

Aeon Skoble's excellent book poses a fundamental challenge to minimal-state libertarians. All libertarians take freedom to be the highest political value and oppose coercion. 

The works of Leonard E. Read, who founded the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in 1946, are now online at the Mises Institute.