Earlier on this blog, Huebert and I noted that Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams, all supposedly revered by the Beltway libertine “libertarians,” or “cosmopolitans,” or whatever they’re calling themselves this week, endorsed policies that, when advocated by some of us on this web site, are deemed worthy of the fiercest denunciation. They portray us as nothing less than Public Enemies for agreeing with Friedman and the rest that open borders combined with a gigantic welfare state poses problems for society, for example.
They call us nasty names, rather like a junior high schooler would do. (A real libertarian who resides around the Beltway and is quite an accomplished intellectual informs me this morning that the CATO v.p./smearbund ringleader, who I used to know, is “incredibly immature” and “probably the most childish ‘major figure’ in the libertarian movement that I have met.” His writing “reeks of grade school antics’).
Well, Smearbund, here’s another target for you: Ludwig von Mises. In the chapter of Human Action on “The Economics of War,” Mises champions free trade and immigration as important deterrents of war, but with a reservation. It is not always possible, he wrote, “of appeasng the aggressors by removing migration barriers. As conditions are today, the Americans and Austrailia in admitting German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants would merely open their doors to the vanguards of hostile armies.”
Now go ahead, Smearbund,do your thing: explode with hatred directed at the great man himself. It’s what you do “best.”
7:56 am on January 17, 2008
