Reply to the Scurrilous, Libelous, Venomous, Scandalous New York Times Smear Campaign

The “Rand Paul problem” from the point of view of the New York Times and other such “progressives” is that he is far too clean. He does not shut down traffic lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge. He has no mistresses nor any love children. He has not stolen vast amounts of money; heck no money at all. He has not put his foot in his mouth regarding witches or rape or “read my lips” or anything else for that matter.

These people greatly fear a Rand versus Hillary confrontation in 2016. The former could “out-left” the latter on war, imperialism, victimless crimes, and “out-right” her on economic liberty, the second amendment and private property rights. Rand has a better shot at beating Hillary than any other plausible Republican candidate, and, it would appear, the time to grease the skids is now upon us.

What is to be done, then? Why, defame Rand directly of course, but also besmirch him not for anything he has done, but line up a bunch of people who could in any way be associated with him, attack them, and imply that Rand is somehow responsible for their actions. The not so hidden agenda here is that, really, Rand agrees with all of them, although he is too sneaky to come out and say this. The candidates for this operation? Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Lysander Spooner, Hans Sennholz, Ayn Rand, Karl Hess, Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Tom Woods, Jack Hunter, Gary North, Alex Jones, and me. My only surprise is that Tanenhaus and Rutenberg, the authors of this disgraceful hit piece did not dig deeper. I am sure that if they had, they could have come up with some dirt on Rand’s plumber, or baby sitter, or gardener, or grocer, etc. Surely, one of them, or a family member or a friend of theirs, did something reprehensible that can be pinned on Rand, with just a little body English, for which the New York Times is justly famous.[amazon asin=4871873234&template=*lrc ad (right)]

Tanenhaus and Rutenberg have delivered themselves of an outrageous attack on Rand Paul, the Mises Institute, and several Austro-libertarian scholars associated with both. In this response, I shall focus only on the injustice perpetrated on me; the other (living) targets are fully able to reply, if they wish to do so, on their own. (For Lew Rockwell’s incisive response in behalf of the Mises Institute, go here. Bob Wenzel’s response is also excellent.)

If I had to summarize their essay in the form of a syllogism, at least as it refers to my small part in it, it would be this:

a. Rand Paul is a libertarian

b. Walter Block is a libertarian

c. Walter Block says that slavery was “not so bad.”

Therefore

d. Rand Paul believes that slavery was “not so bad.”

This attempt to smear Rand Paul’s possible campaign for the presidency of the U.S., to say the least, is an invalid form of argument. It is worse than silly, no? And, yet, it would appear, that is the conclusion the New York Times is attempting to draw. To see the invalidity of this mode of argument, try this one on for size:

a. Rand Paul is a libertarian

b. Walter Block is a libertarian

c. Walter Block says that Mozart was the best music composer and Ayn Rand the best novelist.

Therefore

d. Rand Paul believes that Mozart was the best music composer and Ayn Rand the best novelist.

While I have no problem with premises (a) and (b) above, here is what I actually published about slavery not being “so bad,” and precisely what I was trying to convey to Mr. Tanenhaus in the several hours of interviews I did with him in an effort to explain libertarianism to him:

“Free association is a very important aspect of liberty. It is crucial. Indeed, its lack was the major problem with slavery. The slaves could not quit. They were forced to ‘associate’ with their masters when they would have vastly preferred not to do so. Otherwise, slavery wasn’t so bad. You could pick cotton, sing songs, be fed nice gruel, etc. The only real problem was that this relationship was compulsory. It violated the law of free association, and that of the slaves’ private property rights in their own persons. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, then, to a much smaller degree of course, made partial slaves of the owners of establishments like Woolworths.”

The point is that free association, one of the bedrocks of the entire libertarian edifice, is a bulwark against slavery. On the other hand, the so-called Civil Rights Act of 1964 undermines free association. It forces Woolworths to associate with people against their will. Thus, very paradoxically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 supports slavery. It does so by undermining free association, the violation of which allows slavery. Our friends on the left, amongst whom we must include writers for the New York Times, are thus placed in a bit of a logical quandary. They, of course, as do all men of good will, oppose slavery. But, in their support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, they attack the law of free association. Logically, they cannot have it both ways. When it comes to slavery, they defend the law of free association, which would allow the slave to quit or not be enslaved in the first place; all well and good. But, when racial discrimination is under discussion, they reject the right of the Woolworths of the world to invoke that self-same right of free association, which would allow discriminators of that ilk to refuse service (decline to associate with) people with whom they do not wish to interact. It would appear that New York Times editors and journalists do not appreciate or even comprehend sarcasm.

But is it not unfair, and harmful, to racial minority groups to allow bigots to discriminate against them in lunch counters, or in employment, or in any other way? No, no and no. Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have done more than any other two scholars to demonstrate the falsity of this sort of reasoning. If white owned restaurants do not wish to serve black people, the latter will be more desperate, willing to pay more than otherwise, to be able to purchase meals. Thus, profits in doing precisely that will rise, and other entrepreneurs, both white and black, will have more of an incentive to provide such services. If employers discriminate against black workers, this will drive down their wages to lower levels than would otherwise obtain. This, too, sets up enhanced profit opportunities for yet other firms, to hire these people. If some transportation companies insist that African-Americans ride only in the back of the bus, others will spring up to attract such customers; they will earn higher profits, at least initially.  Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” works all throughout the economy. Racial discrimination is impotent to really harm its targets. Why, then, did this aspect of laissez faire capitalism not actually function in the south in the early part of the last century? ‘Twas not due to any “market failure.” Rather, the free enterprise system was not allowed to function, due to Jim Crow laws. For example, in order to set up a competing bus company, one that would allow black people to sit in any section of their vehicles, permission had to be obtained from state(ist) authorities, the very people responsible for the Jim Crow back of the bus law in the first place. Nor must it be thought that initially black people would have to suffer from higher lunch prices, lower salaries, sitting in the back of the bus, etc. These are only theoretical possibilities, if entrepreneurs do not take advantage of profit opportunities. But we have a name for businessmen of that type: bankrupt. For a more detailed explication of the economics of discrimination along these lines see my 2010 book on this topic, here, here or here.[amazon asin=1908089377&template=*lrc ad (right)]

I spent more than just several hours with Mr. Tanenhaus trying to explain to him how central to libertarianism is the non-aggression principle (NAP).  I told him that the essence of this philosophy is that it is illegitimate to threaten or actually use violence against innocent people. I gave him all sorts of examples. I tried to make the point as dramatically as I could to him. I went so far as to say that the only thing horrid about actual slavery was that it violated the NAP. Otherwise, apart from that one thing, slavery was innocuous: you could pick cotton in the healthy outdoors, sing songs, they would give you gruel, etc. This of course was a hypothetical. A point made to dramatize exactly why slavery was wrong. Not because of cotton, gruel, singing, etc., but due to the vicious violation of the NAP against innocent black people.

And what does that intrepid New York Times reporter make of all this? He turned this into a supposed claim of mine that actual slavery was not so bad.  Specifically, he reported my views in this manner: “Walter Block, an economics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who described slavery as ‘not so bad,’ is also critical of the Civil Rights Act. ‘Woolworth’s had lunchroom counters, and no blacks were allowed,’ he said in a telephone interview. ‘Did they have a right to do that? Yes, they did. No one is compelled to associate with people against their will.’”

Minor problem. I never in a million years would have said “No one is compelled to associate with people against their will.” This is an obvious falsity, what with affirmative action and other anti discrimination laws. Rather, my view is, “No one should be compelled to associate with people against their will.” (Don’t they have tape recorders at the New York Times?) And this applies to Woolworths, to those forced into slavery, to victims of rape, to all those forced to associate, or interact with, or to have anything to do with, others under compulsion.

Major problem. In actual point of fact, I along with pretty much all other men of good will think that this institution was vicious, depraved and monstrous. Why? Again, because of NAP violations, not anything else, certainly not anything as peripheral as singing songs and eating gruel.  I think that the movie “Django Unchained,” and the television series, “Roots,” accurately depicted this system. It would be impossible for any fair minded person to turn what I said into support for such a despicable system.  Surely, no good-hearted person, such as I consider myself, let alone a libertarian for whom NAP violations are at the core of his philosophy, could think that actual slavery was “not so bad.” It is one of the worst things that man has ever perpetuated against man. The only thing I can think of that is worse is mass murder.

Was this stupidity or maliciousness on the part of Mr. Tanenhaus to so twist my words? I cannot be sure, but my assessment is that for this modern reincarnation of Walter Duranty there was a bit of both involved, with the latter surely predominating, since he didn’t appear particularly stupid to me during our long interviews.

Do I regret I did a series of interviews with Mr. Tanenhaus?  Should I resolve never again to deal with a journalist from the New York Times? I would gladly do it again. For one thing, there is always the outside chance of converting such a person to the freedom philosophy.  For another, there is the possibility, admittedly unlikely, that a mainstream journalist would at least be fair.  I go further. My aim is to convert the entire world to the one true faith, libertarianism. I will sit down and talk to the very devil himself in this effort, or, to Communists, Nazis, New York Times reporters, it is all in a day’s work for me.

Not a bit of it. My motto is, Full steam ahead, go right at ‘em, and the devil take the hindmost. The illegitimi are going to misinform gullible people, such as most readers of the New York Times, no matter what is said. Nothing can be done to change that, except of course for a mass conversion to libertarianism, or, at least, decency.  Why allow their possible (well, very likely) misinterpretations to deflect me, us, from making the libertarian case in the most powerful way possible?

It is easy to see how a journalist at the New York Times could so seriously misconstrue libertarianism. Less so, far less so, can this be understood in the case of Reason. These people are supposed libertarians themselves. What had they to say about Mr. Tanenhaus’ smear of me as supportive of slavery as it actually functioned? Here is the reaction of Reason editor Nick Gillespie: “One economist, while faulting slavery because it was involuntary, suggested in an interview that the daily life of the enslaved was ‘not so bad — you pick cotton and sing songs.’” Now, these people full well know who the “one economist” is, namely me. Mr. Mr. Tanenhaus, after all, does mention me by name, and spells it correctly. Mr. Gillespie is fully cognizant of the fact that I am a libertarian. At least he should have known this, since I have contributed to this movement over many years and have published in his own Reason Magazine and Reason Papers on numerous occasions. Did it not seem jarring to him that I would support slavery as not being “so bad?” Am I amiss in thinking that as a fellow libertarian he would[amazon asin=1933550171&template=*lrc ad (right)] have checked things out with me before piling on? I am not at all that disappointed with Mr. Tanenhaus. I expected little better from him; after all, what does he know? He works for the New York Times, for goodness sakes! But I am truly amazed, and appalled, that a supposed libertarian such as Mr. Gillespie would be so vile.

A postscript on voluntary slavery. I am on record on numerous occasions in support of voluntary slavery; some other libertarians support me on this issue as well. See Andersson, 2007; Block, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007A, 2007B, 2009A, 2009B; Lester, 2000; Nozick, 1974, pp. 58, 283, 331; Philmore, 1982; Steiner, 1994, pp. 232. I want now to anticipate and obviate possible objections emanating from “libertarians” such as Mr. Gillespie that my stance here implies that I favor, however slightly, coercive slavery as it actually existed in history, and even nowadays, in some places.

What is voluntary slavery? Consider the following. My child is sick with a dread disease. It will kill him unless he has an operation. The operation costs $5 million, and I, a poor man, just do not have anything like that amount of money. But you, gentle reader, are a rich person, who has long wanted me to be your slave. So, we make a deal. I agree to become enslaved by you, for $5 million. You give me that amount of money, I turn it over to my child’s doctors, and then I come to your plantation to serve you.  We both gain in the ex ante sense from this commercial interaction, as is always the case. You value my servitude more than the $5 million you pay for it; I regard my child’s life more highly than my own freedom. Forget about the niceties of this example. Ignore the political incorrectness here. Do not consider libertarian objections along the lines of not being able to alienate the will. Focus on just one issue: Does this contract, or does it not, violate the NAP? I say it does not, and would hence be legitimate in the libertarian society.

This is not the time nor the place to try, once again, to refute those libertarians who disagree with me on this issue (I am in a distinct minority in the libertarian community).  My aim here is more limited. It is to distinguish the hypothetical case of voluntary slavery from the operation of real world coercive slavery. I claim that the latter is a paradigm case of NAP violation, and ought to be opposed to the utmost, while the former is not. I have little doubt that Mr. Tanenhaus will seize upon this example in a “gotcha!” moment. He will aver that this is but further evidence that I support real slavery, and that since I do, Rand Paul, another libertarian, must as well.

One last word. I allege that it is libelous to claim I maintain that (real world) slavery wasn’t really so bad. Shall I sue Mr. Tanenhaus and his employer? The latter certainly has deep pockets. I am rather ambivalent about this. On the one hand, libel is not a per se violation of the NAP.  Under libertarian law, Mr. Tanenhaus and the New York Times have a legal right to besmirch my good name with allegations of this sort.  Yes, they have attempted to ruin my reputation. Probably, they have succeeded, at least with a goodly number of people. But, I do not own my own reputation. Rather, it consists of the thoughts of other people, and I cannot own those.  For more on this, see my book Defending I. On the other hand, the NAP only requires that libertarians refrain from using violence (lawsuits ultimately constitute the use of invasive force) against innocent people. The New York Times hardly fits this bill. Rather, that organization is a major mouthpiece for the state. As Lew Rockwell pithily put it, and as reported in this very article, they are “part of the regime.” Therefore, they would not be off bounds for a libel suit launched by a libertarian.

I am content with the fact that thanks to this vicious smear, more people than would otherwise be the case have now at least heard of libertarianism. Not in a good light, to be sure. But, perhaps, a significant number of them will do some research on the subject. A good place to start would be with the web of the Mises Institute, mises.com, and/or with LewRockwell.com. Auburn, AL is the center of the Austro-libertarian movement; long may it prosper.

References:

Andersson, Anna-Karin. 2007. “An alleged contradiction in Nozick’s entitlement theory” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, Fall: 43–63; http://mises.org/journals/jls/21_3/21_3_3.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2008 [1976]. Defending the Undefendable. Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; available for free here: http://mises.org/books/defending.pdf

Block, Walter E. 1999. “Market Inalienability Once Again: Reply to Radin,” Thomas Jefferson Law Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1, Fall, pp. 37-88; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/market_inalienability.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2001. “Alienability, Inalienability, Paternalism and the Law: Reply to Kronman,” American Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 28, No. 3, Summer, pp. 351-371; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/reply_to_kronman.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2002.  “A Libertarian Theory of Secession and Slavery,” June 10; https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block15.html; http://libertariantruth.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/a-libertarian-theory-of-secession-and-slavery/

Block, Walter E. 2003. “Toward a Libertarian Theory of Inalienability: A Critique of Rothbard, Barnett, Gordon, Smith, Kinsella and Epstein,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol.17, No. 2, Spring, pp. 39-85; http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/17_2/17_2_3.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2004. “Are Alienability and the Apriori of Argument Logically Incompatible?” Dialogue, Vol. 1, No. 1. http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/2004/256gord6.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2005. “Ayn Rand and Austrian Economics: Two Peas in a Pod.” The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring, pp. 259-269

Block, Walter E. 2006. “Epstein on alienation: a rejoinder” International Journal of Social Economics; Vol. 33, Nos. 3-4, pp. 241-260

Block, Walter E. 2007A. “Secession,” Dialogue. No. 4; pp. 1-14;  http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/2007/4.07.WB.pdf

Block, Walter E. 2007B. “Alienability: Reply to Kuflik.” Humanomics Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 117-136; http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=0685BBB744173274A5E7CE3803132413?contentType=Article&contentId=1626605

Block, Walter E. 2009A. “Yes, Sell Rivers! And Make Legal Some Slave Contracts” The Tyee. July 25; http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2009/07/24/SellRivers/

Block, Walter E. 2009B. “Privatizing Rivers and Voluntary Slave Contracts” July 27; https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block134.html

Block, Walter E. 2010. The Case for Discrimination. Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Discrimination-Walter-Block/dp/1933550813/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336605494&sr=1-1; http://mises.org/store/Case-for-Discrimination-P10442.aspx; available for free here: http://mises.org/daily/4957

Block, Walter E. 2013. “Chris Selley Is a Pussy Libertarian; I’m Not.” February 25; https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block219.html; https://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/02/walter-e-block/chris-selley-is-a-pussy-libertarian-imnot/

Gillespie, Nick. 2014. “Will Rand Paul Mainstream Libertarianism on the Way to White House?” January 26; http://reason.com/blog/2014/01/26/will-rand-paul-mainstream-libertarianism

Lester, Jan Clifford. 2000. Escape from Leviathan. St. Martin’s Press. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312234163/qid%3D989845939/107-8070279-6411737

Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia, New York: Basic Books, http://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-State-Utopia-Robert-Nozick/dp/0465097200

Philmore, J. 1982. “The Libertarian Case for Slavery: A Note on Nozick” Philosophical Forum, XIV (Fall): 43-58; http://cog.kent.edu/lib/Philmore1/Philmore1.htm;

Rockwell, Lew. 2014. “We Win the NY Times Prize.” January 27; https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/lew-rockwell/the-new-york-times-doesnt-like-me/

Steiner, Hillel. 1994. An Essay on Rights, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers; http://books.google.com/books/about/An_Essay_on_Rights.html?id=gBoWUMpKJjwC

Tanenhaus, Sam and Jim Rutenberg.  2014. “ Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance.” January 26; http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/us/politics/rand-pauls-mixed-inheritance.html?hp&_r=4

Wenzel, Robert. 2014. “In Defense of the Mises Institute.” January 27; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/01/in-defense-of-mises-institute.html

Postscript:

This is a missive I sent on 1/28/14 to the letters editor of the New York Times:

I published these exact words on 2/25/13 (https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block219.html) long before being interviewed for your story “Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance,” on 1/26/14:

“Free association is a very important aspect of liberty. It is crucial. Indeed, its lack was the major problem with slavery. The slaves could not quit. They were forced to ‘associate’ with their masters when they would have vastly preferred not to do so. Otherwise, slavery wasn’t so bad. You could pick cotton, sing songs, be fed nice gruel, etc. The only real problem was that this relationship was compulsory. It violated the law of free association, and that of the slaves’ private property rights in their own persons. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, then, to a much smaller degree of course, made partial slaves of the owners of establishments like Woolworths.”

I tried to explain my views to your journalist on the basis of precisely these words. His translation: “Walter Block, an economics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans … described slavery as ‘not so bad…’”

This is shameful. You owe me a written apology.

The New York Times declined to publish this letter of mine to the editor. Here is the actual correspondence that led to their decision (they impose a maximum of 175 words):

1. To: Louis Lucero II

Assistant to the Senior Editor for Standards

The New York Times

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Walter Block <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Editor:

Please consider publishing this in your letters to the editor page (it is 173 words):

I published these exact words on 2/25/13 (https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block219.html) long before being interviewed for your story “Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance,” 1/26/14:  “Free association is a very important aspect of liberty. It is crucial. Indeed, its lack was the major problem with slavery. The slaves could not quit. They were forced to ‘associate’ with their masters when they would have vastly preferred not to do so. Otherwise, slavery wasn’t so bad. You could pick cotton, sing songs, be fed nice gruel, etc. The only real problem was that this relationship was compulsory. It violated the law of free association, and that of the slaves’ private property rights in their own persons. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, then, to a much smaller degree of course, made partial slaves of the owners of establishments like Woolworths.” How did your journalists report this views that I clearly explained? They said “Walter Block, an economics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans … described slavery as ‘not so bad…’” This is shameful. You owe me a written apology.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 15, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
[email protected]
http://www.walterblock.com/
http://www.walterblock.com/publications/
http://samesideentertainment.com/talent/dr-walter-block/
https://www.facebook.com/wblock2
WalterBlock.com: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock
Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock

If it moves, privatize it; if it doesn’t move, privatize it. Since everything either moves or doesn’t move, privatize everything.

2. To Walter Block

From: NYTimes, Senioreditor [mailto:[email protected]Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 6:06 PMTo: Walter BlockSubject: Re: letter to the editor

Dear Dr. Block,

Thank you for your email. While illuminating, your previously published remarks are not necessarily material to the comments you made to our reporter in a telephone interview. In our story, we write:

Walter Block, an economics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who described slavery as “not so bad,” is also highly critical of the Civil Rights Act. “Woolworth’s had lunchroom counters, and no blacks were allowed,” he said in a telephone interview. “Did they have a right to do that? Yes, they did. No one is compelled to associate with people against their will.”

The time and spatial constraints of journalism often preclude our giving as much detail or context as we would like, but not including the full text of a nearly year-old blog post in our article does not constitute a factual error. Because we are only able to address factual errors, and not mere omissions, we don’t believe a correction is warranted in this case.

We know you’re unlikely to agree with our decision, but we hope you can understand it all the same.

Best,

3.To: Louis Lucero II

Louis Lucero IIAssistant to the Senior Editor for StandardsThe New York Times

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Walter Block <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Mr. Lucero:

Of course my published remarks are quite irrelevant, per se. I certainly don’t expect a journalist to reprint them in their entirety. But they convey exactly what I told your Mr. Tanenhaus in my several interviews with him. Clearly, there was a bit of sarcasm in my statement. I was talking hypotheticals. Yet your Mr. Tanenhaus made it appear as if I thought that actual slavery was not “so bad.” You don’t agree that this is a total perversion of my views? Of course actual slavery was horrid and despicable. But why? Because of picking cotton and singing songs etc? No, of course not. Because it was compulsory.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 15, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
[email protected]
http://www.walterblock.com/
http://www.walterblock.com/publications/
http://samesideentertainment.com/talent/dr-walter-block/
https://www.facebook.com/wblock2
WalterBlock.com: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock
Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock

If it moves, privatize it; if it doesn’t move, privatize it. Since everything either moves or doesn’t move, privatize everything.

4. To Walter Block

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Walter Block <[email protected]> wrote:

From: NYTimes, Senioreditor [mailto:[email protected]Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 6:42 PMTo: Walter BlockSubject: Re: letter to the editor

Dr. Block,Thank you for your reply, but we are comfortable with our characterization of your views.Regards,

5. to Mr. Lucero

Dear Mr. Lucero:

I have a one word response for you: wow!

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans
6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 15, Miller Hall 318
New Orleans, LA 70118
tel: (504) 864-7934
fax: (504) 864-7970
[email protected]
http://www.walterblock.com/
http://www.walterblock.com/publications/
http://samesideentertainment.com/talent/dr-walter-block/
https://www.facebook.com/wblock2
WalterBlock.com: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock
Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock

If it moves, privatize it; if it doesn’t move, privatize it. Since everything either moves or doesn’t move, privatize everything.