A lot of people want to make an argument in favor of government or in particular, in favor of taxation, on the basis of public goods. Public goods, you might recall, are non-rival, non-exclusive goods, the production of which benefits everyone, but since the benefits cannot be excluded, many people presume that such goods will be underprovided in a free market. Typically, what they mean is that these goods may be provided in a...
We all know, or ought to know, the truth about the State’s origins. To a one, they are built on a foundation of violence, and they maintain their statehood through the systematic implementation of violence and oppression. In Some economics of invasion and the State, constant‘s most interesting idea is that since overthrowing a State appears to be a public good, then according to conventional wisdom, it will be undersupplied. In short order, he...
Citing a TechCrunch article indicating that the SEC is shutting down Prosper.com, Jason Kolb comments on The Money Mafia known as the Federal Reserve system. There is some merit to what he has to say, but I think he overlooks the most important points. I wasn’t able to leave a comment at Jason’s post for some reason, but I was going to respond here anyways. To review, Prosper.com is a peer-to-peer lending network which...
