How Best to Promote Liberty?

Dear M: As far as I’m concerned, this is an empirical issue: what will work best in converting people to liberty. In my view, there is no one right way to do this. The two most successful people in this endeavor, in terms of numbers of people converted, are Ayn Rand and Ron Paul. Yet, they were polar opposites in terms of how they approached this. Ron has always been a sweetie pie; no one would say this of Ayn. I am buttressed in this view by Austrian subjectivism: different strokes for different folks. Then, there are those who rely on the Meyers-Briggs findings to explain why we have such great difficulty adding to our numbers: most present libertarians fit into a psychological grouping which encompasses a very small part of the entire electorate. I’m up in the air about this one too. My own thought is that most people are hard-wired not to accept Austro-libertarianism, and that we, who do, are sort of like biological mutants. I am not aware of the relevant literature, but, if readers of this blog supply me with any, I’ll send it to you. Best regards, Walter

From: M
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2018 12:09 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Root vs Reform debate

Hello Walter,

Hope you are well. I am having a debate with a very smart, dynamic young man who is an anarcho-capitalist/voluntarist. I call this debate Root vs Reform Debate akin to the Calculation (Mises) vs Knowledge(Hayek) debate.

He is trying to use charity laws to reform the system. Basically, Arizona has a set of laws that allow for the taxpayer to assign a certain amount of his tax payment to a charity of his choice. He started an organization that is trying to get this legislation adopted in more states and at the federal level. He feels that this will wean people off the state and get them aware that there can be other solutions rather than the state.

I have pointed out that he is making the efficiency argument that Milton Friedman made which just makes the executioner/state more efficient at what it does which is destroying wealth/health. His argument rests upon the belief that some/enough people will be converted to a less government/no government position. He does not take into account how the state/crony capitalists/crony philanthropists will coopt the system.

I have searched for someone debating this and I have not been able to find it. I know somewhere in his literature, Rothbard mentions how laws should be changed so that it not just re-regulation vs true de-regulation. I can’t remember where this is covered and, if memory serves, it is not a full on exploration such as Democracy The God that Failed.

A good book would be Philanthropy: The God that Failed.

Please let me know of any literature that covers this. I am surprised that this is not a big, famous debate topic amongst Austrians. Maybe it is and I am just missing it. Below, I put some links on essays that covering the subject tangentially but not head on from a theoretical debate the way your work does.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Gary North’s two articles on School Vouchers
https://www.garynorth.com/public/17996.cfm
https://www.garynorth.com/public/8202.cfm

A short article by Jeff Deist on my Tax Reform won’t work. Some of the arguments apply.
https://mises.org/wire/dont-fall-tax-reform

This is an example of how the future of charities will be controlled. SPLC gets to determine which charities receive Amazon smile money. Side note ADL gets to do anti-hate training in corporations and government.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/05/amazon-smile-liberal-splc-anti-semitic-groups/

Share

2:16 am on July 28, 2018