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Possibly, but so long as the courts are good (as they have every reason to be) the creation of a competitor would be difficult due to a natural near-monopoly. Courts have high efficiencies of scale, as fixed costs are high and variable costs low, and are primarily dependant on subjective reputation, which is difficult to establish. I think that a beneficial
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Define freedom of speech. If you are referring to the fact that speaking is never a crime, then I agree, with one caveat: that exclusion from property is not a punishment, but an exercise of property rights. The sidewalk is actually not a right-of-way, because the government continues to assert its control over the sidewalk. It permits people to walk
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I actually agree that happiness is the goal of politics, just as prosperity is the goal of economic organization. It just so happens, however, that just as free markets lead to prosperity, limited government leads to happiness.
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I personally believe that a stance against the death penalty for murder is an offense against natural law, but be that as it may be, his record on monetary affairs is not the best. I recommend A Financial History of the United States by Dewey, if you can still find a copy.
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I am not quite certain whether I am a minarchist or an anarchist, but when I was a minarchist I thought that the state should finance itself by fines on criminals. Essentially, part of the punishment for every criminal should be the variable court costs associated with his case, along with his share of the fixed costs. Why should we as a society pay
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First of all, abortion should be left out of libertarianism because to those who oppose abortion, it falls under the same principals of natural law as murder. Very few people believe that abortion should be illegal who do not believe that it is murder, and believing that an infant's humanity is not decided by its location is not a direct reflection
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But even Jefferson caved in rather dramatically in supporting intervention and redistribution, despite his fine rhetoric.
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I agree. Not being an anarchist is not prima facie evidence of supporting any market intervention; for three or four years I was a minarchist who opposed any government intervention in the economy and I saw no contradiction. I will not accept that Mises supported state intervention in the economy without a direct quotation.
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Inflation arises from a discrepancy between the amount of money that can be spent and what it can buy at present prices. If the present amount of money being used to purchase goods is greater than the monetary value of goods available, then inflation will correct the imbalance. One good becoming more expensive with no underlying increase in purchasing
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Comparing Ron Paul to statists like Reagan and Goldwater is dramatically unfair to Paul. Reagan and Goldwater were part of the New Right, that accepted the government's place in society and its responsibilities to uphold the welfare of its citizens, but also believed that the free market was often the best way to do that. Ron Paul rejects the state's