Learning more about Ludwig, and I realized that the ancap notion that all taxation is theft (not disagreeing with it, mind you) is inconsistent with the minarchism of Mises.
How do Mises fans rectify this? Sincerely curious. Is it as simple an answer as "he was wrong"?
It's as simple as: he wasn't an anarcho-capitalist. Maybe philosophically he was an anarchist (somebody like Hoppe would point that out), but practically he was just a minarchist. There's no mandate that says we must agree with Mises on everything to be a fan of him.
Queue Conza.
I think that it's hard to pinpoint exactly what Mises was. He clearly advocates for conscription, but at the same time you can interpret his work to imply infinite secession and anti-nationalism to the fullest extent of the term and his definition of government is clearly compatible with anarcho-capitalism. So overall it's hard to say. He's so minarchistic that he clearly does verge on anarcho-capitalism.
We deal with it by abandoning minarchism and being consistent, even if he was not. Many good things have been originated by people who were incredibly wrong on other issues and areas. Just look at Einstein, a socialist for god's sake.
Mises was a brilliant economist. His political theory didn't go far enough.
Rothbard took it the next logical step. Mises is correct on virtually everything, but this is the one inconsistency (from our modern Rothbardian perspective, which was published only just a few years before his death). But once that further correction is made, everything makes sense within his own system.
For comparison: Herbert Spencer, J.B. Say, and Lysander Spooner supported strong copyright, which is totally inconsistent with the rest of their own economics and philosophy. CLEAN HANDS. Ignore it and replace it with what you know is correct, while keeping the other true contributions to economics, which is more than any other economist in history.
Thelion nailed it. It's just like a band's music. You can be a fan of a particular band, but it doesn't mean you have to like every single song. There's always a bad song in there somewhere, but it doesn't make you not continue to be a fan.
Because SM has read sooo much Mises ;)
...What's that supposed to mean?
What do you think it's supposed to mean?
I'm going to pull a F4M here by saying "And?"
"And?"
And nothing.
I'm not sure whoever said on here that I haven't read much Mises. It seems to be a myth that Wheylous enjoys utilizing for circulation.
Two different approaches to morality; Mises was a utilitarian, Rothbard wasn't.