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The State Is Not Great: How Government Poisons Everything
By Jacob Spinney
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force. The thing that differentiates the government from any other group of people is that it is a territorial monopoly with a commonly believed right to engage in aggressive violence. It’s time we stop fooling ourselves into believing that the government is the entity which allows us to achieve collective goals and start recognizing it for what it really is, the entity that enables one group of people to violently aggress against another; that allows one individual to benefit at the expense of another. Taxation, that is to say coercively taking people’s property against their will, and regulation, that is to say coercively preventing or restricting individuals from engaging in voluntary activities, is enslavement by another name. But let’s ignore the ethics and just… Read More
This is a response to Harris’ recent article entitled, “A New Years Resolution for the Rich,” which can be found here.
Dear Sam,
My video response to this sentiment.
Have you ever read any Milton Friedman? F. A. Hayek? Ludwig Von Mises? Murray N. Rothbard?
I think you are making many unsupported assumptions in this article; that taxing the rich will not disincentivize them from producing in the first place, that the rich spending their money how they please will not help just as many, if not more, people than taking their money, losing 75% of it in government bureaucracy, and then using what’s left over to give some people free money, that the wealth disparity was not caused by the government itself using laws and regulations to help businesses cartelize and monopolize market sectors so as to charge higher prices and provide lower wages, that forced… Read More
This is the script for a future video that I think will be one of my most important works. So I would very much appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
The State Is Not Great: How Government Poisons Everything
By Jacob Spinney
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force. The thing that differentiates the government from any other group of people is that it is a territorial monopoly with the commonly believed right to use coercion. It’s time we stop fooling ourselves into believing that the government is the entity which allows us to achieve collective goals and start recognizing it for what it really is, the entity that enables one group of people to violently aggress against another; that allows one individual to benefit at the expense of another. Taxation, that is to say coercively taking people’s property against their will, and regulation, that is… Read More
This is an excerpt from “Internal Inconsistencies in Arguments for Government: Nozick, Rand, and Hospers”
by David Osterfeld
“Another well-known argument for the minimal state is that of the objectiv-
ist philosopher, Ayn Rand. Not only does Rand advocate a minimal state
but, like many other contemporary minarchists, she opposes taxation as a
form of involuntary servitude.
The starting point for Rand is the cognition that life in society pre-
supposes the repudiation of the initiatory use of violence. But, says Rand,
“if physical force is to be barred from social relationships, men need an in-
stitution charged with the task of protecting their rights under an objective
code of rules.”ls And such a code, she believes, precludes the possibility of
competition in this area. It is this fundamental incompatibility of force and
production that is ignored by
… Read More
I would HIGHLY appreciate some feedback on this before I make this into a video. If there are things you think need to be reworded or if there are things you think I left out, please let me know.
The State Is Not Great: How Government Poisons Everything
By Jacob Spinney
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force. The thing that differentiates the government from any other group of people is that the government is a territorial monopoly claiming the right to use coercion. It’s time we stop fooling ourselves into believing that the government is the entity which allows us to achieve collective goals and start recognizing it for what it really is, the entity that enables one group of people to violently aggress against another; that allows one individual to benefit at the expense of another.
… Read More
