I thought you guys would be interested in the recent series on the economics blog Naked Capitalism. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/journey-into-a-libertarian-future-response-to-reader-comments.html
It was five part series, where the author used select quotes from Hoppe, and essentially made a mockery of him.
Also Brad Delong and Paul Krugman have recently taken an interest in L.V. Mises.
Here’s Delong on his blog http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/11/austrian-monetary-mental-mysteries-for-what-i-hope-is-the-one-last-time.html#comment-6a00e551f080038834015436f97dd9970c
And here’s Krugman http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/mental-monetary-disorders/
I’m not sure that Krugman article even warrants a response.
From the Naked Capitalism Blog:
Block says that if the apartment owner demands that the person let go, and the flagpole hanger attempts instead to climb down into the balcony, then if “the occupant shoots him for trespassing… the answer is clear. The owner… is in the right, and the trespasser is in the wrong.”
This sounds strange to me. Using lethal force against trespassers? Surely, the use of force has to be in proportion to the danger for the home owner. In this particular case, there seems to be no threat to the home owner and the execution of trespassers seems unwarrented.
This is a point of disagreement I have with Block where I think he is simply wrong. You may use reasonable force to get people off of your property, not unlimited force.
Consider the scenario where a man kidnaps people with helicopters and drops them onto the land of a crankish guy who sits on his porch all day with a gun looking for trespassers. Can this man then shoot the people who get kidnapped and dropped off? No.
Here’s part 1http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/journey-into-a-libertarian-future-part-i-%E2%80%93the-vision.html
It’s a lot of material*.*
and yet those very same people are ready to justify state violence and killing or putting in cages people for victimless crimes. Double standard, anyone?
It’s kind of nice that these reducto ad absurdium’s are the best available ammunition against libertarianism. Things like these can obviously be handled by common law. Can any of the people asking that question honestly think that libertarianism would lead to a society where minor infractions are punishable by death? More likely they’re trying to squeeze in a point on the board. I haven’t heard Block on the subject but I would presume that he is making the point purely from a stripped logical point-of-view where “force” begets force, but certainly not a normative sense. Where does he discuss this btw?
I see the attention as an accomplishment. When I published The Value Theory of the Austrian School in the July, 1994 issue of The Appraisal Journal, hardly anyone paid much attention to it. At the time, I was just learning about my topic and, at the end of the article, I asked other professionals to help me investigate this area of research.
No one did. I did get a call from one of Mises’ former student saying that he appreciated the article but didn’t fully understand the theory but the article was largeley ignored.
I’m hoping for a much different reaction when I complete my book, with a working title of Engines of Prosperity, when I complete it in a few months. Mises.org participants are welcome to contribute to the development of the book by commenting on the Asset Valuation blog.
The Delong blog actually got a response on the Mises Blog: