TGIF: Immigration and Culture
I pay no attention to the Super Bowl, even less to the overhyped halftime show. But I do pay some attention to the reaction to the show's headliners when they're announced and afterward. So I know that some people did not like that Bad Bunny (whom I knew nothing about and still don't know much) was to be the featured performer. Apparently, some people were offended that he performs in Spanish. (Can you imagine! I mean, who speaks Spanish in America?) I'm also aware that Turning Point USA held a rival halftime show featuring 50-something "Kid" Rock doing a bad lip-sync in the Bermuda shorts...
Latest Interview
I was a guest on a recent episode of "Don't Tread on Anyone" with Keith Knight.
Richman, Liebowitz & Immigration
TGIF: Immigration vs. Settler Colonialism
The people performing those mind-boggling contortions to justify, on libertarian grounds, state violence against migrants without papers—restrictatarians, I call them—cite a 1994 article by Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) in support of their double-jointed acrobatics. Rothbard was correct about many things, but a position is not correct merely because Rothbard held it. I expect no disagreement over that. As a general matter, Rothbard's importance to the shaping of the modern libertarian movement needs no documentation. He was accomplished in economics, social theory, and history. In his time, he...
TGIF: Damn Those Innovators!
The problem of survival is never "solved," once and for all, with no further thought or motion required. More precisely, the problem of survival is solved, by recognizing that survival demands constant growth and creativeness.... Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress. It creates the optimum social conditions for man to respond to the challenges of nature in such a way as to best further his life. It operates to the benefit of all those who choose to be active in the production process, whatever their level of ability. But it is not geared to the...
Capitalism Can’t Be Everything Its Foes Say It Is
"Nothing is more unpopular today than the free market economy, i.e., capitalism. Everything that is considered unsatisfactory in present-day conditions is charged to capitalism. The atheists make capitalism responsible for the survival of Christianity. But the papal encyclicals blame capitalism for the spread of irreligion and the sins of our contemporaries, and the Protestant churches and sects are no less vigorous in their indictment of capitalist greed. Friends of peace consider our wars as an offshoot of capitalist imperialism. But the adamant nationalist warmongers of Germany and Italy...
TGIF: The Right to Move
If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people's rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn't much matter. The default position is that each individual may rightfully move to somewhere else permanently or temporarily. Inside the United States, nobody questions this. People freely move from state to state, etc., sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. They need no one's permission. Why should things be different when...
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