Equality; Price Controls; Chaos Theory; The Patriot

Free Speech Board

The question was is equality good.

The only answer as of this writing was, “Equality is always desirable, but maybe not always attainable.”

I believe one thing should be equal: everyone’s property rights. Nothing else can be held equal without initiating force.

Also, I do not understand what the fetish is with equality, people were made differently, and can do different things better than others. That’s just how it is! This stupid idea that there should be equality of opportunity or equality of outcomes is absolutely contrary to nature and should be dropped for a more logical philosophy that will have better logical outcomes.

Macro

We just took the test on the market model, so I thought I’d talk about artificial price ceilings and floors.

Ceilings

A price ceiling is when the government says no one can charge more than a certain amount for an item. For example the government may say that gas cannot cost more than $2 per gallon.

What then happens is the firms who sell the gas will supply the amount they would have if the
actual market price was $2, so some companies who could only profitably sell gas at $3 per gallon will stop selling. At the same time consumer demand for the gas will go way up because they can buy it at only $2 per gallon, so people who would only buy $20 before will fill up their tanks and people will speed up faster and drive more, thus more gas will be bought than before. So as the supply falls because firms cannot make money of the current price, the demand will sharply rise and buy up all the gas, thus there will be a shortage. Anyone who lived through the ‘70’s should remember this happening.

Floors

The best example for a price floor is minimum wages; currently the government says no one can sell his labor for less than $6.25 per hour.

So what happens is many people go out and try to find jobs paying this amount or more, upping the supply, but the firms who before purchased the labor for less than $6.25 will no longer demand the labor, and a surplus, or unemployment, of labor will be created.

Maybe, an easier explanation would be corn: (I have no idea what the price of corn is) say the government puts a price floor on corn saying people cannot charge less than $200 for it. Farmers would then en masse start growing corn to earn the higher profits on it, while at the same time people would change to eating green beans and other things instead of the expensive corn, the result, way too much corn than is needed and many farmers who need money to buy clothes and water, but instead have a crapload of corn.

The lesson: anytime government screws around with prices it takes away the proper market signals that show how much should be supplied of products and create shortages or surpluses of those products.

Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory is a little known book by Robert Murphy, who is the author of the PIG to Capitalism, it is just 55 pages and contains two essays by Murphy on the mechanicals of a stateless society.

The essays are on Private Law and Private Defense.

So far I’ve only had time to read the Private Law essay, but I’ll post on the Defense part next week.

In a stateless society everything would be owned privately, by definition, Murphy says that it would be in the interest of everyone who owns property to put in a contract that everyone who enter the property cannot steal, murder, assault anyone, etc. If anyone breaks the contracts they would be subject to a fine, considering the trial of a private court or arbitration firm.
To make sure all the fines would be paid it would be likely that ‘crime’ insurance companies sprang up, and businesses would only allow those with this insurance on their property.

The insurance companies would proceed to only grant policies to those who they believed would not commit crimes (if someone already did commit the insurance company may say we’ll only give you the policy if you stay in a private jail).

I have some objections to this (what’s to stop people from just entering the property without signing a contract, and what about rich people who could just afford the fines) so I’m going to re-read it, but at least form what I now understand its seems logical and plausible.

The Patriot

The Patriot is a story of Benjamin Martin, a character partly based on the “Swamp Fox,” Francis Marion, who is considered the founder of modern Guerilla Warfare.

The movie can be looked at very well from a libertarian perspective. It starts out with Martin’s son joining the Revolutionary army and being taken by the agents of the big British government, who proceed to kill another of his son who runs after the soldiers.

Martin then takes vengeance finding the road on which the British soldiers were and, with two of his younger sons, killing all of the Brits guerilla style and taking his oldest son back.
Martin joins the army and throughout the movie he uses his wits and knowledge of the land to cripple the British Big Government army in his area.

It is important to point out that the Revolutionary army was basically anarchic in the Revolutionary war, there was, as of yet, no government for them to follow. And as Murray Rothbard pointed out if a bunch of farmers and blacksmiths could voluntarily join an army and beat the best army and navy in the world who could possibly take over the whole of Americans, all of which will know their land better than any attacking force.

Quote of the Week

Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hangs on the results. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the greatest historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.
– Ludwig von Mises