—–Original Message—–
From: PS
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2016 12:47 PM
To: wblock@loyno.edu
Subject: NAP Question
Dear Professor Block, Recently I saw where someone posted an argument that stated that the NAP would allow you to shoot a starving child from stealing food from a garden. I know that this is a scenario that is never likely to happen, and as a strong believer in the NAP I wouldn’t pull the trigger. How would you respond to this?
Dear PS: This is one of the toughest challenges to libertarian theory. It really tugs at our heartstrings. Before answering the spirit of what you’re asking, let me object to the format in which you put it. As stated, this is not the proper question to address to a libertarian. We cannot respond to what we would actually do. That is because, correctly understood, libertarianism is a theory about the proper use of violence, including punishments, jail sentences, etc. So, let me turn around the question and convert into something to which a libertarian may address: Suppose the owner of a garden shoots a starving child in the process of steading vegetables from his garden (we assume that no lesser defense such as a water hose, or tasing, or rubber bullets will enable him to protect his property); is such a man guilty of any crime, such as murder? When put in this format, the answer is a clear No. The starving child is a thief, the gardener is the legitimate owner of his vegetables, and libertarianism is a theory that supports private property rights and opposes theft, as a rights violation. The gardener is not a criminal.
This sounds awful, I agree. Our hearts go out to the starving child. So, let me attempt to ameliorate the disgust with which many people will greet the above response: there will be far fewer starving children in a society that rigidly protects private property rights than in one that allows any exceptions to them, let alone one that rides roughshod of owners’ rights, ceteris paribus. Yes, this one child will die, but many more, now hidden from view, will live, if we uphold private property rights. It is the task of the libertarian to take into account not only that which is seen, this one starving child, but what is unseen in this example, all the other potentially starving children who will be saved, if property rights are upheld. I go further; this child is only starving due to lack of private property rights. If they were in place, he would be well fed. Also, if starving children are allowed to steal with impunity, what about trespass? Should they be allowed to trespass on other people’s property? Not according to our libertarian philosophy. What about fetuses (e.g., very young and very needy children) who are the product of rape. Must they be carried to term against the wishes of the mother, who owns the property in question, her womb? That would appear to be the obvious implication. But it should be rejected. I have written quite a bit about these sorts of challenges to libertarianism, here are a few samples:
Block, Walter E. and William Barnett. 7/12/03. “Voluntary Taxes: Abusive Language and Politicians,” https://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block28.html
Block, Walter E. 2002. “A Libertarian Theory of Secession and Slavery,” June 10; https://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block15.html; http://libertariantruth.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/a-libertarian-theory-of-secession-and-slavery/
Block, Walter E. 7/9/02. “Secession,” https://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block18.html; reprinted:
http://www.secessionist.us/secessionist_no8.htm; http://www.southernnationalist.org/secession_block.htm
Block, Walter E. 7/18/02. “Market vs. State,” https://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block20.html
Block, Walter E. 2002. Book review of Hoppe, Han-Hermann, Democracy, The God that Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order, 2001, in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 61, July, pp. 747-750;
Block, Walter E. 2002. “The Libertarian Minimal State?” A critique of the views of Nozick, Levin and Rand, Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 141-160; reprinted in Younkins, Ed, ed., 2004. Philosophers of Capitalism: Menger, Mises, Rand and Beyond; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/minimal_state.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2002. “All Government is Excessive: A Rejoinder to ‘In Defense of Excessive Government’ by Dwight Lee,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 35-82. http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/16_3/16_3_3.pdf; rent seeking, market failure
Block, Walter E. 2000. “Watch Your Language,” February 21; http://www.mises.org/fullarticle.asp?control=385&month=17&title=Watch+Your+Language&id=19; http://mises.org/daily/385
Block, Walter E. 2004. “Libertarianism, Positive Obligations and Property Abandonment: Children’s Rights,” International Journal of Social Economics; Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 275-286; http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do?containerType=Issue&containerId=18709; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block-children.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2008. “Homesteading, ad coelum, owning views and forestalling.” The Social Sciences. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 96-103; http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1890872
Block, Walter E. 2014A. “Evictionism and Libertarianism.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Volume 35, Issue 2, pp 290-294; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/04/27/jmp.jhu012.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=3n1zc8zcBRnT586;
http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jhu012?ijkey=3n1zc8zcBRnT586&keytype=ref
Block, Walter E. 2010B. “A libertarian perspective on the stem cell debate: compromising the uncompromisible,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Vol. 35: 429-448;
http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/jhq033?
ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jhq033?ijkey=oczT7ytzmoAD1cz&keytype=ref ; http://wipimd.com/?&sttflpg=78eaf87fd81ebaaa7a245cca600b15bba8497c2cfbf1284c08a0260ba068d4ad&cmpgp0811Ueh016=ICD20811TEH0PkRLpL1IF; http://wipimd.com/?&sttflpg=4b842f7f4697bce38422e0bfe03e6ccad53070377a9303d5#JAL1
Block, Walter E. 2011A. “Terri Schiavo: A Libertarian Analysis” Journal of Libertarian Studies; Vol. 22, pp. 527–536; http://mises.org/journals/jls/22_1/22_1_26.pdf; http://libertycrier.com/walter-block-terri-schiavo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LibertyCrier+%28Liberty+Crier%29
Block, Walter E. 2014A. “Should abortion be criminalized? Rejoinder to Akers, Davies and Shaffer on Abortion” Management Education Science Technology (MEST) Journal. Vol. 2, No. 1, January, pp. 33-44; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/Sadrzaj_eng.html; http://fbim.meste.org/FBIM_1_2014/_04.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2014E. “Toward a libertarian theory of evictionism,” Journal of Family and Economic Issues. June; Volume 35, Issue 2, pp. 290-294; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10834-013-9361-4;
http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1007/s10834-013-9361-4; http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/463/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10834-013-9361-4.pdf?auth66=1385583057_5dd1e3442d2db3f98c91dcf5a5d5fa43&ext=.pdf; http://www.springer.com/home?SGWID=0-0-1003-0-0&aqId=2507833&download=1&checkval=feff928fe5dfc72bc210032f220ca40a.
