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Inalienable rights and the non-aggression principle

The non-aggression principle (NAP) is consistent with the view that rights are inalienable. If we accept that the right to not be aggressed against is inalienable, retribution and punishment are necessarily prohibited. Such a prohibition is consistent with the NAP as these retributive acts are not a direct response to aggression (as is self-defense) but …

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Authority is always illegitimate

The concept of “authority” can be defined as the right to control someone. While the word is sometimes used in other contexts (i.e. “the leading authority on UFO sightings”), the relevant definition is “the right to control” rather than as an inexact synonym for “expert.” It is also improper to use the word to mean …

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Six ways children are treated like (or even worse than) slaves

I truly believe that one day mankind will look back on the way children were treated in 2016 with the same incredulity and revulsion as they do how slaves were treated in 1816. The inhuman treatment of children combined with the habitual denial of even their most basic human rights is an inerasable stain upon …

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How to be a good juror

Someday you may be called to serve on a jury. This is a grave responsibility which gives you power over someone’s life and liberty, and you must not take it lightly. There is no action more serious than depriving someone of their freedom and that is exactly what a guilty verdict from a jury does. …

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Capitalism for dummies (and socialists)

The whole notion of capitalism is that those with capital are incentivized to invest it in order to obtain a profit. If profits are outlawed or significantly reduced through confiscatory taxation, the incentive to invest is reduced or eliminated. If profit is forbidden, I have no incentive to invest rather than consume. Why would I …

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Human nature and the state

It has been said that if men were angels, they wouldn’t need government. The truth is that it is because men aren’t angels that the state is so dangerous. Most people are decent and good. They do not want to control, hurt, or extort their fellow man. There is a minority, however, for whom these …