After a few years of studying Austrian economics, one question continues to puzzle us: why would anyone who understands free markets still believe the state is necessary? Free markets require that each person be secure in his person and property, a condition that can never be attained under a state. It is often argued that a constitution is the appropriate means for restraining state power. LRC readers will be familiar with arguments that the federal state became unconstitutional with the New Deal, or in 1913, or during the Civil War, or perhaps the Louisiana Purchase or the War of 1812. … Continue reading That ‘Night Watchman’