Libertarianism and the Nuke Question; Come to Loyola U to Study Austro-Libertarianism With Me

From: harris

Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 9:25 PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: Two questions

Dear Mr. Block, I have several questions and I figured I would email you about these questions. My first question is that I want to get a degree in economics and possibly have a PhD in economics. I live in a mostly liberal/leftist state which is Washington State. Now, I looked and saw no universities in my state which has a professor that’s an austrian or teaches austrian economics. A lot of the schools that teach austrian economics or have austrian economists are over in the south or on the other side of the United States which I’m completely fine with. The only thing is out of state tuition which I might not be able to afford maybe if I get a scholarship I could get lucky not sure but I might have to go into debt doing so. Now, what would you reccomend for me to do in this situation? I mostly prefer being taught by an austrian. I saw the interview you just did where three people interview you and you mention something about having more people being students of already austrian economists. Being taught by a austrian economist really interests me. This is why I’m asking you this question about getting a degree in economics and possibly be a student of a austrian. Note that maybe there would be a austrian economist teaching in my state when I graduate from high school because I’m only 15 and I’m turning 16 next month.

My second question is under an anarcho-capitalist society how would we deal with nukes. The only thing I came to a conclusion if a person gets a hold of a nuke and launches it is a anti missle rocket or advanced technology in the world would counter that nuke. I have heard other people say nukes violate the NAP due to it can only be used in harmful ways. What is your opinion on nukes? Does it violate the NAP and are there other ways to counter nukes then what I listed to counter them?

Dear Harris:

Here’s my response to the nuke question:

Block, Walter E. and Matthew A. Block. 2000. “Toward a Universal Libertarian Theory of Gun (Weapon) Control,” Ethics, Place and Environment, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 289-298; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/theory_gun_control.pdfhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/228127780_Toward_a_Universal_Libertarian_Theory_of_Gun_(Weapon)_Control_A_Spatial_and_Georgraphical_Analysis?ev=prf_pubhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/228127780_Toward_a_Universal_Libertarian_Theory_of_Gun_Weapon_Control_A_Spatial_and_Georgraphical_Analysishttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713665896

As for going to college, I urge you to apply to my school, among others, and see how much of a scholarship you can get.

Here’s the case in behalf of that plan:

Might you be interested in enrolling at Loyola and studying with me and my free enterprise-oriented colleagues? If so, take a peek at this material:

https://www.loyno.edu/

https://academicinfluence.com/people/walter-block

Loyola has a high tuition; this cannot be denied. However, this Jesuit University does award scholarships, not only on a need basis. As well there is the Walter Block Scholarship, which is additional to the funds offered by Loyola: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2018/12/introducing-walter-e-block-scholarship.html

Further info on the WB scholarship:

Block, Walter E.  2019. “Prospective libertarian students should consider the Walter Block scholarship.” February 3;

https://www.loyolamaroon.com/10021154/showcase/opinion-prospective-libertarian-students-should-consider-the-walter-block-scholarship/;

https://www.targetliberty.com/2018/12/an-opportunity-to-study-under.html

The Walter Block Scholarship

I have been a professor of economics at Loyola since 2001. During that time, I have had numerous excellent students, who were interested in my research projects: Austrian economics and libertarian theory. I have been lucky that many of these students, while still in high school, read my publications and listened to my speeches, some in person for example at the Mises University, and others on the web. As a result, they enrolled at Loyola in order to study with me, and my half dozen fellow free enterprise professors. This might not sound like all that much, given that we have some 200 professors, but, believe me, Loyola New Orleans is a beacon of light as far as Rothbardianism and Misesianism are concerned. At next door Tulane University, with a faculty at least triple our size, there are only two professors who fit this bill. And at LSU in Baton Rouge, quadruple our size, there is not a single solitary professor who espouses such a political economic philosophy. Yes, we have numerous social justice warriors, Marxists, feminists, professors, as do virtually all universities. But, at least at Loyola, a student will be introduced to both sides of debatable issues, unlike at most universities. As well, with so many professors who appreciate economic freedom, there are many students who also do. According to research I have seen, one of the best predictors of student satisfaction is finding friends among the student body.  You will, here at Loyola.

So, if you are a student at a junior or two year university, which has no libertarian professors, and no students of this persuasion either, think of transferring to Loyola. If you are a high school student, getting ready to apply to university, consider us. If you are a parent or grandparent of a college age person, do consider suggesting that they apply for admission to Loyola, in order to study with me and my free enterprise fellow colleagues.

Just recently, a former student of mine has set up a Walter E. Block scholarship. It is worth $25,000, for the next four years, for a total of $100,000. I am now able to disburse these funds to Loyola students who demonstrate an interest in private property, free markets and limited government. Make no mistake about this, Loyola’s tuition is very high. However, my school does give generous scholarships, based on financial need, and also for other reasons. My scholarship money will be in addition to those funds, not a replacement for them. So, apply to Loyola, even if you thought our price tag was too high. With this scholarship money at my disposal, we can be financially competitive even with public universities.

This award is for students who are interested in studying the economics of free enterprise, who are supporters of the philosophy of private property rights, limited government, deregulation, free trade. Please provide me with evidence of your interest in this libertarian free market philosophy. Books you have read on this subject? Book reports on them? Term papers on this subject? Leaders of this philosophy by whom you have been influenced? As an application, please write me a letter along these lines. You can reach me at [email protected]

Block, Walter E.  2019. “Attention High School Students.” February 6;

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/02/walter-e-block/attention-high-school-seniors/

Block, Walter E. 2017. “C’mon Down To New Orleans; The Water’s Fine. Enroll at Loyola University.” June 27;

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/cmon-new-orleans-waters-fine-enroll-loyola-university/

Loyola Economics Students Published Widely in Refereed Journals; http://www.loyno.edu/news/story/2017/7/17/3962

http://business.loyno.edu/bios/faculty?field_bio_program_filter_value=Economics

Block, Walter E.  2017. “The Best Place to Study Undergraduate Economics.” June 30; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/06/the-best-place-to-study-undergraduate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29

Wenzel, Robert. 2017. Interview with Walter E. Block. “The Inside Scoop on Studying Economics at Loyola University-New Orleans” September 3;

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/09/the-inside-scoop-on-studying-economics.html

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/09/the-inside-scoop-on-studying-economics.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29

Block, Walter E. 2008. “Attention Students: Should You Get Your Ph.D. and Become a Professor?” June 28; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block104.html (debate with Gary North) https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/young-person-saved-from-academia/;

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2018/04/loyola-professor-attacks-austrian.html

Top Ten Contemporary Academics Helping The Political Right (I’m #8)

http://www.poletical.com/academics-helping-the-right.php

https://www.literature-map.com/max+stirner.html Literature map; some interesting writers

100 Most Influential Libertarians: A Newsmax/FreedomFest List (#46)

http://www.newsmax.com/BestLists/libertarians-newsmax-freedomfest/2017/06/01/id/793510/

Block, Walter E. 2018. “Scholarship Opportunity: Spring 2019 New Business Students!” December 15; https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/12/walter-e-block/scholarship-opportunity-spring-2019-new-business-students/

Wenzel, Robert. 2018. “An Opportunity to Study Under a Libertarian Great.” December 11;

http://www.targetliberty.com/2018/12/an-opportunity-to-study-under.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TargetLiberty+%28Target+Liberty%29

Wenzel, Robert. 2018. “Introducing the Walter E. Block Scholarship.” December 11; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2018/12/introducing-walter-e-block-scholarship.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29

Our economics department: http://business.loyno.edu/bios/faculty?field_bio_program_filter_value=Economics

Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than 600 refereed articles in professional journals, two dozen books, and thousands of op eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous others). He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows.  He is the Schlarbaum Laureate, Mises Institute, 2011; and has won the Loyola University Research Award (2005, 2008) and the Mises Institute’s Rothbard Medal of Freedom, 2005; and the Dux Academicus award, Loyola University, 2007. Prof. Block counts among his friends Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard. He was converted to libertarianism by Ayn Rand. Block is old enough to have played chess with Friedrich Hayek and once met Ludwig von Mises, and shaken his hand. Block has never washed that hand since.  So, if you shake his hand (it’s pretty dirty, but what the heck) you channel Mises.

Walter E. Block received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University (1972). He has worked at Canada’s Fraser Institute and taught at Rutgers University, Baruch College, The State University of New York at Stony Brook, Holy Cross College, and University of Central Arkansas. He is Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute, recipient of the Institute’s 2005 Murray N. Rothbard Medal of Freedom and the 2011 Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Liberty, and holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair at Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70118 [email protected]. Loyola has among the highest proportion of free-market advocates of any economics department in the country (100%). Block is the author of Defending the Undefendable (I and II) and two dozen other books on economics, as well as over 600 journal articles. His latest few books are: Property Rights: The Argument for Privatization (2019); Philosophy of Law: The Supreme Court’s Non- Use of Libertarian Law (2019); Space capitalism: the case for privatizing space travel and colonization (2018); An Austro-Libertarian Critique of Public Choice (2017); Essays in Austrian Economics (2017). But he states that his greatest claim to fame is that he was a friend of Murray Rothbard’s for almost 30 years. He also brags that he shook the hand of Ludwig von Mises.

Top Ten Contemporary Academics Helping The Political Right (#8)

http://www.poletical.com/academics-helping-the-right.php

https://www.literature-map.com/max+stirner.html Literature map; some interesting writers; I’m in the middle, to the right of Hermann Hesse, and below Bruce Lee

100 Most Influential Libertarians: A Newsmax/FreedomFest List (#46)

http://www.newsmax.com/BestLists/libertarians-newsmax-freedomfest/2017/06/01/id/793510/

Dr. Walter Block has been in the forefront of the libertarian movement for over 50 years. Lew Rockwell has transferred the title of “Mr. Libertarian” from Murray Rothbard to Walter: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/11/lew-rockwell/the-astounding-walter-block/. Professor Block has done 100s of youtube lectures and interviews. He is responsible for a dozen professors now spreading The Gospel According to St. Murray. He has published over 600 articles in refereed journals and law reviews, almost 30 books (including the ever-popular Defending the Undefendable), and literally 1000s of op-eds in newspapers and blogs, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Here is what Hayek had to say about Block’s book DTU: “Looking through Defending the Undefendable made me feel that I was once more exposed to the shock therapy by which, more than fifty years ago, the late Ludwig von Mises converted me to a consistent free market position. Even now I am occasionally at first incredulous and feel that ‘this is going too far,’ but usually find in the end that you are right. Some may find it too strong a medicine, but it will still do them good even if they hate it. A real understanding of economics demands that one disabuses oneself of many dear prejudices and illusions. Popular fallacies in economics frequently express themselves in unfounded prejudices against other occupations, and in showing the falsity of these stereotypes you are doing a real service, although you will not make yourself more popular with the majority”

Block is a leading Austrian School economist and an international leader of the freedom movement. His earliest work Defending the Undefendable (first edition Fleet 1976, latest edition Mises 2008, translated in 12 languages) is now, more than 30 years later, still regarded as a classic of libertarianism. This collection of essays, which argues in behalf of societal villains as economic scapegoats based on the principles of nonaggression, forces its reader to think and to rethink his initial knee-jerk emotional responses, and to gain a new and far sounder appreciation of economic theory and of the virtues and operations of the free market economy. Block’s writing was inspired by Henry Hazlitt, the author of the most widely read economics text Economics in One Lesson. Block’s latest book is: Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty.

Block has been a fixture in the libertarian movement for some four Decades. He actually met Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek, and was friends with, and mentored by, Murray Rothbard.  His contributions to academic libertarianism and to Austrian economics have been prodigious. Block’s writings continue to challenge the conventional wisdom (or ignorance) of how economics works and will retain its freshness for decades to come.  His public speaking style has been described as a combination of that of Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Murray Rothbard

Dr. Block has written over 600 articles for peer reviewed refereed journals, some two dozen books, and literally thousands of op eds for magazines and newspapers. Block appears widely on radio and television. He is a contributor to such scholarly journals as The Review of Austrian Economics, Journal of Libertarian Studies, The Journal of Labor Economics, and the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is currently Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business Administration, at Loyola University New Orleans.

Walter E. Block is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans. His Ph.D. was from Columbia University. His interests include Austrian economics and libertarian theory. He has published almost 600 articles in refereed journals, 27 books, and thousands of op eds.He lectures globally at university campuses, business and civic groups. He has a series on privatization (roads, oceans and space); his most popular books are Defending the Undefendable I and II; he is now working on volume III in this series plus a libertarian analysis of abortion. His main claim to fame is that he once played chess against Friedrich Hayek and on another occasion shook the hand of Ludwig von Mises, and never washed his hand afterward. It is now pretty dirty, but if you shake his hand, you channel this hero of his.

Mr. Libertarian:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/11/lew-rockwell/the-astounding-walter-block/

https://libertarianism.fandom.com/wiki/Walter_Block

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+Walter+Block+Mr.+Libertarian%3F&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS790US790&oq=is+Walter+Block+Mr.+Libertarian%3F&aqs=chrome..69i57.13500j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Even some critics of libertarianism confer this honorific on me:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Walter_Block

Top Ten Contemporary Academics Helping The Political Right (#8)

http://www.poletical.com/academics-helping-the-right.php

https://www.literature-map.com/max+stirner.html Literature map; some interesting writers

100 Most Influential Libertarians: A Newsmax/FreedomFest List (#46)

http://www.newsmax.com/BestLists/libertarians-newsmax-freedomfest/2017/06/01/id/793510/

Autobiography: http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block21.html

https://libertarianconvention.org/speakers/walter-block/

URLs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZfyVuSKkE0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZfyVuSKkE0

http://www.walterblock.com/media/

http://www.walterblock.com/publications

http://www.walterblock.com/

www.WalterBlock.com/publications

www.mises.org/blockhttp://mises.org/articles.aspx?AuthorId=443

http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=443

http://www.bostream.nu/lal/Walter/Johan2.html#IV

http://cba.loyno.edu/faculty/Block/index.html

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=walter+block&btnG=Search

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Walter+Block&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search

www.walterblock.com http://www.walterblock.com (Kins)

Pic: http://business.loyno.edu/faculty/wblockhttp://www.business.loyno.edu/faculty/wblock

http://business.loyno.edu/faculty/wblock

c.v.: http://www.cba.loyno.edu/faculty.html

http://www.business.loyno.edu/faculty/wblock

http://ssrn.com/author=71168

http://itunesu.mises.org/

http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=443

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrTsaSUFfpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WhqTtil7Ls&feature=channel_page;

http://mises.org/multimedia/block/block-Fraser.wmv

http://mises.org/Controls/Media/MediaPlayer.aspx?Id=4044 bsll

blog posts for the Mises Institute: http://blog.mises.org/author/walter_block/

Mises Daily articles: http://mises.org/articles.aspx?AuthorId=443

scholarly articles and book on the Mises Institute website: http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&ID=443

http://www.walterblock.com/media

pic: http://tinyurl.com/23br6j2;

http://www.business.loyno.edu/system/files/images/loyola-university-new-orleans-walter-block_0.jpg;

http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/walter-block.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walter1897/5015192410/

http://mises.org/articles.aspx?AuthorId=443

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Walter+Block&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3

Best regards,

Walter

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12:55 pm on April 22, 2021