Paying Library Fines?
September 11, 2016
From: MH
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2016 4:28 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: A picayune inquiry re: government fines
Dear Dr. Block,
Is one morally or ethically obligated to pay library fines, and if so, why and under what situations? Holistic application of the principle? Thanks. Sincerely, MH
Dear MH: As a libertarian, I have no truck with morality or ethics. Only with a small subset of those disciplines, namely, what should the law be. And my answer is, the law should promote the non aggression principle and private property rights. So, if you don’t pay a private library fine, you’re a criminal. If you don’t pay a fine from a public library (which shouldn’t exist in the first place) you are a heroic Ragnar Danneskjold
Dr. Block [send him mail] is a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author of Defending the Undefendable, The Case for Discrimination, Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective, Building Blocks for Liberty, Differing Worldviews in Higher Education, and The Privatization of Roads and Highways. His latest book is Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty.
Paying Library Fines, Part II