The Lomasky review is an interesting example of what is getting to be a fairly common phenomenon: Hoppephobia. Although he is an amiable man personally, Hoppe’s written work seems to have the remarkable capacity to send some readers up the wall, blood pressure soaring, muttering and chewing the carpet. It is not impolite attacks on critics that does it. Perhaps the answer is Hoppe’s logical and deductive mode of thought and writing, demonstrating the truth of his propositions and showing that those who differ are often trapped in self-contradiction and self-refutation.

Hoppe is my hero in this regard.  It’s great to win a debate on the merit of your ideas, on the clarity of your argument, and the sincerity of your values.  But it is also fun to watch your counterpart disqualify himself as he resorts to ad hominem and lies while you avoid getting dirty, and don’t break a sweat.

h/t Stephan Kinsella

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Here is Mises on this matter from “Planned Chaos” (http://mises.org/web/2714#Ch.3)

“The market is a democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. It is true that the various individuals have not the same power to vote. The richer man casts more ballots than the poorer fellow. But to be rich and to earn a higher income is, in the market economy, already the outcome of a previous election. The only means to acquire wealth and to preserve it, in a market economy not adulterated by government-made privileges and restrictions, is to serve the consumers in the best and cheapest way. Capitalists and landowners who fail in this regard suffer losses. If they do not change their procedure, they lose their wealth and become poor. It is consumers who make poor people rich and rich people poor. It is the consumers who fix the wages of a movie star and an opera singer at a higher level than those of a welder or an accountant.”

–Mises

In the past, I have promoted this idea as market as democracy, but now I believe it is quite false.  The market is not a democracy as popularly understood.

In a democracy the will of the majority prevails.  That the so-called losers are bound by the decision of the so-called winners (majority).  In a free market however, the minority or minorities are not bound by the majority.  Their capital (in politics, it would be political capital, or political will) is allocated based on their decisions, irrespective of the decision of the majority of market actors.

As an example, in democratic politics, if the majority elected Barack H. Obama to be President, then he would be the President for everyone, who voted for, not at all and against him.

In a free market, if a majority choose Barack H. Obama and a minority choose Bob Barr, and another minority Chuck Baldwin, then all of those individuals would lead their respective constituents.  There is no need to have a consensus or monopoly outcome in a free market.  As a matter of fact, this is precisely what the free market is.

With the left-libertarians and anarcho-socialists pushing anti-capitalists memes, it is best to divorce ourselves as anarcho-capitalists from this notion of market as democracy.  The rich do have greater purchasing power, but it should not influence the decisions of those less rich than they are, just as the less rich should have no claim on the spending patterns or wishes of the more wealthy.

Both parties can get what they want as long as they are willing and able to pay for it themselves.

In my mind, this is not like voting at all.

I hope others stop identifying the market as democracy, because it perpetuates this notion that the opportunity to vote validates a potentially undesirable binding outcome.

The political system which most closely mirrors a free market is Panarchy, not Democracy.

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The one place that provides an escape from the state and the scarcity of “property” (in the loosest sense, elbow room) is space.

Sure, it might not be feasible to live generationally on space ships or stations.  Sure, there may not be many or any easily habitable planets.  But it seems to me that we’re getting closer and closer to commercial space travel.  And when that day happens, someone is going to wander off the accepted and beaten path, and attempt to blaze their own trail.  It’s quite likely many will.

My goal is to never stop looking upwards with hope no matter how much the state wants me to focus my gaze down.

I’m bringing this up because (1) I am in a sci-fi mood lately, (2) libertarians/austrians/anarchists seem to do a lot more staring backwards than forwards, and (3) a young fella on the Mises Forums inspired it.

It’s a list of obscure tax havens.  When I first looked through it, Nevis caught my eye (it’s near the beginning of the article).  A new habit of mine, when considering any country as a destination, is to head over to NoState.com’s Renunciant Resource page, to check the viability of surrendering citizenship and/or gaining stateless status in that country.

Unfortunately, Nevis doesn’t pass the renunciant test, however I did also visit it’s Wikipedia page, to find out that like most small countries so-called “financial services” are a growth area, and a leading sector of the economy.  Financial services is a creative way of saying that these countries attract capital by offering financial freedom, either with tax sheltering, low taxes, no taxes, creative incorporation schemes etc.

A small joint like Nevis doesn’t need an imperial army, or massive redistributive schemes.  There aren’t thousands of miles of highway to maintain.  The obscure tax haven article makes mention that one might be able to purchase citizenship quickly.

Sounds like my kinda place.

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Google releases their new browser, named Chrome. Someone mentioned that it was difficult to find Chrome related domain names. Not too difficult for me. I scored 4 in 10 minutes.

Also, the release of Chrome is somewhat surprising. I’m not a tech gawker, and admit I had no idea it was coming even though it coincided with Google shutting down it’s CPA referral program (perhaps due to someone I know who had found a way to push massive conversions through it) where it promoted Firefox heavily. After doing so much work to move people to a browser that is now a competitor…

Maybe it was to give Microsoft a kick in the jiggly bits.

What’s fascinating to me is that the internet is evolving so rapidly that browsers are becoming more diverse and more disparate. Chrome is not like other browsers, although only the more technically minded folks will realize how different it really is. There truly is a lot of differentiation in the freest market mankind has ever seen.

FSK lost his job. That sucks. Although I think the drama of his workplace was starting to crush his soul, so maybe it is a good thing that he is now searching for a new mission. I’ve been there. I’ve always been better for the resets in my life, whether I pushed the button or someone else did.

I have 10 drafts, or unpublished, half-written, half-baked posts. With each passing day, I feel less connection to them, and the reasons I started them in the first place. While this holds true of what I thought might be a legendary post about the LRC Podcast, with the lack of podcasts for what feels like a couple weeks now, perhaps it is best that I didn’t get that one done or sink hours into transcribing audio quotes.

I totally abuse commas. So sue me.

I don’t like blogging. Bloggers have always seemed like soapbox self-promoters to me. There are so few who have something worthwhile to say, and many who just want acknowledgment for saying anything. But I have to admit that it is cathartic. And can be reflective.

On the Mises forum, someone asked, “How does an industry benefit from being taxed?”. What proceeded were explanations of the method by which companies benefit from taxation, and the conclusion that taxation functioned similarly to regulation as a barrier to entry.

I was going to add to the discussion and point out that lobbyists and corporations now write legislation, because whether it is tax or regulation, the government is the most efficient way for big business to control and limit competition. There doesn’t seem to be enough disgust with statism and the status quo for me in those discussions. At times, the environment seems very laissez-faire and in direct contradiction to Mises admonition, “tu ne cede malis”. I’m all for laissez-faire, but not when it comes to my oppression.

There are so many charades going on around us. The campaign charades, the legislative charade, the patriotic charades. Yesterday I listened to a few friends talk about Obama and Palin. They both acknowledge the system is a scam, that politicians are parasites and so forth, but are completely enthralled with the cult of personality that surrounds speech making and grandstanding.

“You should watch Bill Maher!” they tell me. Well, no I shouldn’t. I gave up Maher early in my transformation. He’s a cynical bigot whose primary contribution is attacking everything and everyone. The problem is, he does it indiscriminately. Literally, the loose cannon of left-intellectualism.

This guy, Francois Tremblay, does a Market Anarchist Carnival. I thought about signing up for it, but I don’t have a lot of content yet. I don’t know that he would let me run one.

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Advocating secession is, practically by definition, un-American.

Questions for Steve Benen…

What definition is that? What would you call the American Revolution? Were the colonies not seeking to secede from Great Britain?

Considering that the Revolution was a founding event in the history of America, your statement

Advocating secession is, practically by definition, un-American.

is stunningly ridiculous.

Steve, the world is already overflowing with people who post mindless jingoism. Please find a new shtick and stop trying to damage humanity.

And shame on AlterNet for reprinting you. Don’t they have anyone with any editorial integrity?

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The majority of people start to hate libertarians when they are humiliated by them. You may be 100% correct in your logic, and if so you will probably make the other person feel defeated and humiliated and all you accomplish is making yourself into an object of hatred and discomfort.

This reminded me of something I read in “Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View” by Ron Paul.

“No one should expect that any logical argument or any experience could shake the almost religious fervor of those who believe in salvation through spending and credit expansion”

That’s from Ludwig Von Mises, “Stones into Bread : The Keynesian Miracle” Planning for Freedom 1974 p. 63

I’d like to add, the humiliation is not always a result of the approach. I think many people feel shame when they realize they have never critically thought about what they believe, let alone that they may be totally wrong. They cannot defend their position, which makes it seem like more of a beating.

Someone also wrote in the discussion that no one likes finding out Santa doesn’t exist.

Worse than that, no one with any modesty likes finding out that they were believing a lie. It is very embarrassing.