Dear Alan:
I think it is compatible with libertarianism to keep drunk drivers off the road. They constitute a threat, even if they hit no one. Remember the NAP of libertarianism proscribes not only the initiation of physical violence against innocent people, but also the threat thereof. I’ve written about that here:
Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; https://store.mises.org/Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Human-and-Economic-Factors-The-P581.aspx; http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-And-Highways-Factors/dp/1279887303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336605800&sr=1-1; available for free here: http://mises.org/books/roads_web.pdf; http://mises.org/daily/3416; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/radical_privatization.pdf; audio: http://store.mises.org/Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook-P11005.aspx; http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook/B0167IT18K?tag=misesinsti-20; http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=6cbc90577b&e=54244ea97d;
http://www.sanfranciscoreviewofbooks.com/2017/09/book-review-privatization-of-roads-and.html
Best regards,
Walter
From: Alan Cassidy
Subject: about: cd19 & political-correctness
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/05/walter-e-block/cd19-political-correctness/
Walter,
I am convinced by the anti-vaxxer argument on scientific grounds, but understood especially after your clarifications that your argument was based on a pure hypothetical. I understood that.
A comparable question: What of the guy who stumbles almost drop-down drunk out of a bar or even his home, to get in a car to drive elsewhere?
He’s obviously greatly endangering everybody on the road. Is it “NAP-compliant” to detain him?
Your hypothetical implicitly presumes perfect knowledge shared among all parties.
“Perfect knowledge” is a problem for “NAP applied”. I think in a libertarian (NAP-compliant) society there would be private services that would serve the purported purpose of verifying the reliability and relative safety of all and any such substances, and the integrity of companies.
The Better Business Bureau is one such example, still working. My Mom used them to get an encyclopedia salesman to fulfill the promise of the free dictionary promised upon the last payment. The company was a member.
The Underwriters Laboratories is another. Still another is Consumer Reports. Such a service industry would probably expand, servicing neutral parties in civil disputes. Or in disputes involving things like vaccines, so terribly distorted by government mandates. I think the “terrain” theory (immunity) would win out over the “germ” theory of disease. Also, the end of patent law or enforcement would be crucial.
–ALan
2:18 am on July 11, 2020
