1

What’s the true objective of ‘single-payer’ advocates?

We’ve shown in the previous Mental Lever why single-payer is a phony, misleading term. Essentially, there’s no real single-payer in left-statist schemes, such as “single-payer” healthcare. The term single-payer is inherently fraudulent. But it does encode a deeper statist desire and danger… What left-statists really want to achieve is a single-price. Single-payer systems replace millions of natural prices with an artificial, …

8

Can you induce people to reject statism?

Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed that… “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” But the Rubber Band Effect tells us how hard it is to stretch a mind that far. So… What we need are ideas that EXPLODE the human mind to vast new boundaries. The ideas that do this best are those that induce …

3

Are advocates of single-payer lying, perhaps even to themselves?

The term “single-payer” is applied to many things, especially healthcare. But it’s never the case that there’s a single payer for schemes that adopt this term. The usual conditions for proposing a single-payer are… Assume everyone has a positive right to some service. It’s “positive” in that it requires some person or group to provide the service. Ensure these service …

4

Why do my friends snap-back to statist ideas when I’m not there?

Surely you’ve had this experience: You use evidence and logic to persuade a friend to drop some statist myth. But the next time you see them, you find that he or she has readopted the myth! Are you discouraged? You shouldn’t be. Here’s what happened… Your friend returned to a world flooded with statist propaganda. Your friend tried to explain …

8

Does the label anarcho-capitalist accurately describe any libertarian?

Some libertarians — including some of our best friends — like to call themselves anarcho-capitalists (an-cap for short). But please consider three ways this label fails.  Failure #1: The word anarchy no longer means what it once did. Anarchy meant “no ruler” to the ancient Greeks. Many modern libertarians use it the same way. But current usage defines the word …

Can we let the market handle things?

The Market: Inviting choice, competition, and crowdsourcing What do libertarians mean when they say, “Let the market solve that problem?” Are they suggesting that a cabal of greedy, capitalist cronies are the ideal way to solve a problem? The answer is “No.” The word “market” is shorthand for an approach that features choice, competition, and crowdsourcing. The libertarian believes a …

7

Should libertarians abandon the word capitalism?

Left-statists (Democrats, socialists) abuse the word capitalism to paint a false picture of those who favor freedom. This has led some libertarians to advocate abandoning the word. But left-statists won’t abandon it. They’ll continue using it in a distorted, pejorative way. Forfeiting won’t gain us anything. Recognizing this, many libertarians have chosen to embrace the word instead. Some use it …

30
Post-Statism

What is a post-statist?

Post-statists advocate a forward-looking approach, where history has discarded The State in favor of consumer-controlled governance. Post-statists are voluntaryists. On both moral and pragmatic grounds, voluntaryists believe there should be no exceptions to the Zero Aggression Principle and the Equal Liberty Rule. All relationships should be voluntarily chosen and mutually maintained. On this basis, post-statists make a specific recommendation about …

1

Is capitalism the same thing as the free market?

Most people assume that capitalism and the free market are the same thing. But capitalism is really just a subset of the free market. It’s the part that uses savings to create tools to expand production. The free market is much more than that. It includes not only the production of tools but also… All consumption  Quality control Distribution Retail …

37
Sovereign Law

What fundamental laws will govern a libertarian society?

Will society still need some source of ultimate authority? The answer is yes. That authority will come from three ZAP-based social norms. The first two social norms are what the writer Richard Maybury calls The Two Laws . . . Do all you have agreed to do (contracts) Do not encroach on other persons or their property (the Zero Aggression Principle) …