I would like to try something a little different. Just as an experiment. How about a "liberty advice column", right here on this blog? You can either pose your questions in the comments (avoid using the Haloscan comments for this) or email them to me at: dullhawk@hotmail.com (please reference this blog post in the subject line somehow) and then I will see if I can give you some advice on the blog the next day. Of course, unlike most advice columns, other commenters may disagree and give you competing advice. Free-market advice.
Make up a nice pseudonym and have at it. This is important- If you don't want the question and answer to be public, please tell me and I won't post it on the blog, otherwise....
PS: I am still looking for any "investors" who would like to help get the coins into production.
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Dear Dull 'Hawk,
ReplyDeleteThe government steals from us all the time. That seems to mean that government people are thieves. Thieves don't have any moral right to what they have stolen, as I understand it.
If we steal (really: take back,or homestead) things from government or from government people, do we act morally? If so, what of the fact that what we liberate will be repurchased with funds that come from insurance pools that include non-state people who are guilty of nothing?
Well, anonymous, Since it's "free market" advice, I'll take a shot.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say first and foremost that the collective "we" is out of place here, and it muddles things considerably. If you, or any other actual person with a name, has had some specific piece of property taken from you, then, yes, you have a moral right to it, no matter who took it. Of course, if you you try to take it back from the government, expect to be jailed or killed for your trouble. Morality and reality are not the same thing-ask Jesus.
But, when you say "we" and "us" you get into very dangerous territory, since you have no claim on something stolen from someone else-only your own stuff. That means that if you "liberate" something, be it money or other property, that was stolen from me, or that someone else like an insurance co. has a claim on, you are still a thief, but morally and legally. Since just because it was once stolen, does not make it fair game for you to take as well
This is part of why collectivism is so terrible, it confounds morality.
But that's just me. Can't wait to hear Kent's thoughts.
I'd add my own question-Since at one point virtually all property was stolen, particularly land, is it really possible to have a claim to private property? In the strict principled sense, or is there a degree of pragmatism involved since true original ownership is impossible to determine?