From: AL
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2019 11:54 AM
To: walter block
Subject: Updates and libertarian question
Dear Walter,
A couple of years ago you, upon observing that I was at least as interested in normative matters as in positive matters, encouraged me to study law as well as economics. I am happy to report that I have followed your advice and have been admitted by the xyz Law School. As I have been doing a PhD in economics at xyz for the past 3 years, I will now be doing a PhD-JD joint degree. It takes less time than doing the two programs separately, since some coursework can be counted toward both degrees. More specifically, it takes around 1 to 1.5 years more than a PhD program alone.
On another note, I also have a question about libertarian theory. Suppose the entire earth has been privatized (including the waters). Suppose someone doesn’t own any land (or water) and is so hated by everybody that everybody disallows him on their property. Then it seems he cannot go anywhere without violating the NAP. Then what should he do, according to libertarianism?
Thanks a lot! AL
From: Walter Block <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2019 5:10 PM
To: AL
Subject: RE: Updates and libertarian question
Dear AL:
Where did this person come from?
1.From Mars, or elsewhere, off earth? Then, he’s plain out of luck. If he lands, he’s a trespasser. However, if it is an emergency landing, presumably, the court will go lightly on him. But, he’ll have to take off and leave in his rocket ship afterward. If he can’t, or refuses, he can be put to death, under the weird, unlikely, assumptions you’re making
2. He’s from our planet. He’s in a slightly better legal place than the space traveler above. He was born on earth. Presumably, his parents owned property, or, at least, rented it. Presumably, their lease allowed them to have a baby. Ok, now let’s take the worst case scenario. He’s now 21; everyone hates him, even his parents. Their lease allows them to evict all totally hated people. He’s now in no better a position than the space man. He’s gonna be killed, not murdered, since this is a justified killing, not murder, since he’s a trespasser with no place on earth to go (I assume there’s no space ship for him to go elsewhere).
This really sound horrid, callous. Libertarianism is a pretty murderous philosophy, our critics will say at this point. But, I insist, we’ve got to stick to our principles, not run away from them. One of the (few) things I like about Bernie, apart from his Ron Paulian foreign policy, is that he does not run away from his principles. Bernie never ran away from Socialism, even in the early part of this century, when it was not as popular as it is today. He’s also an avid democrat. He didn’t run away from that, even when asked if actual prisoners, not merely ex cons, should have the right to vote. He stuck to his principles, misbegotten as they are. Lately, he’s been defending eugenics. Weird fellow.
Neither should we libertarians run away from our NAP and private property rights principles. Of course our principles are quite a bit better than Bernies’. But, he should be our guide in terms of sticking to principles, wherever they lead us!
I also insist this callousness arises only from the weird assumptions of the case. It would be exceedingly rare than none of the 7.5 billion people on earth would want to house the spaceman, or the hated man, as I’m sure you appreciate.
This is similar to the case of a handicapped child that no one wants to adopt. It is tough luck on that child too, based on these weird assumptions. This is similar to the case of Robinson Crusoe, who homesteads the island, every square inch of it without exception, and relegates Friday to being eaten by the sharks.
But, I further insist that more hated people will live under the NAP and private property rights than without them, ceteris paribus. And this goes for unwanted spacemen and unwanted handicapped children. We have a wealth of empirical evidence, too, illustrating the claim that libertarian principles lead to economic welfare, prosperity.
I have written about yet another case in point on this sort of thing here (the guy hanging on to someone else’s flagpole, 20 stories in the air):
Block, Walter E. 2003B. “The Non-Aggression Axiom of Libertarianism,” February 17; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block26.html;
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/2013/09/no_author/the-heart-of-anarcho-capitalism/
Best regards,
Walter
4:14 pm on September 10, 2019
