The Humble Libertarian original

Sometimes when I am lacking in the level of initiative and motivation I need to sustain to achieve all my goals short term and long range, I go onto message forums and Facebook groups and join in some debates with Marxists and socialists to get my head right. Just to think, if I keep staying unmotivated and uninspired long enough, my mind could atrophy so badly I end up like one of these blighted souls! It's a real gut check. Well recently some one started off a debate asking for some Marxists to justify their belief that wage labor and the employer-employee relationship are inherently exploitative. One happily obliged: "Wage labour pays only a fraction of what it's worse. [I think he meant to type "worth"] That's where the exploitation happens. Your wage isn't the whole value of your work, most of it is retained by the boss as surplus, or profit." To which I responded: "Of course the labor is worth more than the wages to t...

A study of FBI crime statistics released last month has found that marijuana legalization is decreasing violent homicides related to the illegal drug trade in U.S. border states. In this article I talk some about the study and link to an article I wrote in 2010 in which I predicted this would be the outcome of legalizing marijuana by thinking about the problem of drug related violent crime economically. When we think economically about tough social problems, it can reveal truths that are counter to intuition.

When you have the great foresight not to consume every resource you've got, what's left over becomes savings. When you have the great insight to trade your savings for tools that make you more productive, your savings become capital. Why Capitalism Is Good Capital is what makes work a little or a lot easier on you, and the key to getting ahead is spending less on consumption and investing more on capital. Most people consume right up to their limit, and they stay poor or middle class forever. Those who have great success in life are usually those who create more for the rest of the world than they consume. Capitalism's Characteristics Resources find their way into such a person's hand in great amounts because they will grow in that person's care. Most of us are more or less given exactly as much as we can be trusted to be responsible with in this world. For many of us that's just enough not to die or riot each month. For a very few of us th...

"Spiders don't need to be capitalists. And they don't need people making videos favoring them being capitalists." Ron Paul would love this video... because it's pure gold.

Walt Williams presents a different way of thinking about issues related to racial discrimination by offering a rigorous analysis of the assumptions that: 1) discrimination leads to adverse effects for racial minorities, 2) that statistical differences between races imply and measure discrimination, and 3) that statistical differences would not rise nor persist in the absence of racial discrimination.

MONEY FOR NOTHING: Inside the Federal Reserve is an independent, non-partisan documentary film that examines America's central bank from the inside out - in a critical yet balanced way. http://www.moneyfornothingthemovie.org/ Had a friend pass this along. Looks great.

Look, I normally wouldn't draw attention to something like this, because this debate was embarrassing and frustrating beyond words to listen to, not the kind of thing I want to shed light on as representative of the best we libertarians have to offer. But with this thing front-paging The Daily Paul on Friday, I've decided I just have to speak up, because now it's received plenty of exposure, and commentary about it all over the place except for Reddit and on the YouTube video of the debate itself, is making me wonder what planet the commentators were on while they were listening to this. To clarify my opening remarks, my primary problem was with Robert Wenzel's presentation, not with Stephan Kinsella . G B Shaw reportedly once said, "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." Kinsella definitely got dirty and Wenzel definitely liked it. I've got to give Kinsella credit for remaining as patient ...

Milton Friedman talking common sense about drug policy before it was cool. When he mentions that he was a teenager during alcohol prohibition, I can't decide how old that makes him seem, or how recent that makes alcohol prohibition seem. Lessons forgotten so quickly...

One set of rules for small business owners. Another set of rules for the people who make the rules. How many more examples are we going to need?

This is classic. Jeff Berwick, of the Dollar Vigilante , is cut off by a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio host when he starts revealing the true nature of fiat currency to the show's listeners. The show is also a good look at how the mainstream media and its audiences are perceiving and grappling with alternative crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. NB: they don't understand it and find it really scary. Boo! Listen here .

My friend Craig Schlesinger is on a roll getting the libertarian message out there. In one letter to the editor which made it into The Wall Street Journal, Craig reminds a Journal opinion columnist that the nation's fiscal problems aren't just the fault of the blue party. The red party's compassionate conservatism ramped up federal spending to unprecedented levels under George W. Bush. Then in a letter to The Tennessean, Craig takes down the regulatory state with a solid dose of economic thinking regarding anti-gouging laws and ticket sales . He concludes with a particularly tasty sentence: "...the vulnerable person is hurt the most by removing the distributive justice of the market." Yes. On his blog, Spatial Orientation , he credits Matt Zwolinski 's research into the ethics of exploitation as inspiration for his letter on anti-gouging laws. ( super cool videos on the Matt Z link) Like his work? Check out " The Almighty Dollar? " on Spa...

Made up characters that give you free stuff if you behave yourself. So I Googled " libertarian easter eggs ." I don't know what I was hoping to find. Maybe some egg dyed bright yellow with the words "DONT TREAD ON ME" stenciled on. Or a half black, half gold anarcho-capitalist Easter egg. Or a half black, half red anarcho-communist Easter egg. Or a red, white, and blue Easter egg. Or something. Anyway, I found this pretty cute article from Parents.com's DadaBase Blog by a libertarian dad about his two-year-old son's successful egg hunt. The dad thinks his son learned a subtle capitalist message. I don't know. I think an egg hunt is probably more mercantilist than anything. It's also definitely zero-sum. If you want to teach the kid a capitalist message, arrange to take him on a tour of a local family farm where they actually create new eggs. Have him buy a couple with some money he made doing simple age-appropriate chores. Take them hom...

By: Wes Messamore This nasty period of high unemployment that has plagued the U.S. economy since 2009 will not come to an end until policymakers begin to think more economically. Read my entire article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore In this ninth full episode of the back-from-the-dead Wes Messamore show , Wes Messamore and Drew Martin take your calls to discuss the intersection of Liberty and Finance. They will also be interviewing Tom Brown of The TGB Report . Show runs from 5 - 7pm Central today (Friday, April 6), streaming live to your computer! Visit this page to tune in or to catch the archived podcast afterward if you miss the live show. We will be taking your calls ! Call in number is: (646) 716-4214. If you missed Monday's awesome episode on alternative libertarian strategies for achieving a free society, you can listen to the archived podcast of it here ! Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore Is that politician or pundit making valid economic arguments, or just distracting you with flashy, partisan talking points to gain ground for their candidacy or “team?” Here are a few things that every Independent voter and thinker should look out for: Read the rest of my article at the Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore In political discourse, especially heated partisan political discourse, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis are often used as a point of comparison for one’s enemies across the aisle, and while both “sides” in America do it, both sides also never fail to call the other one out for making an unfair, petty, hyperbolic attack for partisan reasons. The use of the Hitler or Nazi comparison is so common that in 1990, U.S. attorney and author Mike Godwin coined an adage that has become well known on Internet discussion forums as Godwin’s Law: “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” But there’s a real difference between the partisan sniping that you’ve read before and what you’re about to read next. This is not an article about how Barack Obama is just like Hitler, and neither is it an article about how George W. Bush was just like Hitler. You won’t be reading about Democrats or Republicans ushering in a Fourth...

By: Wes Messamore What do you do when one of the very few economic analysts to predict the financial crisis would strike in ’07 or ’08 says another, even more catastrophic economic collapse will hit the United States economy in 2013 or 2014? Read my entire article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Is it merely a coincidence that every time the government steps in to make something more affordable and more readily available, that very thing becomes more and more expensive over time (and usually diminishes in quality too)? It’s a story we’ve seen repeated again and again, especially throughout recent American history. For decades now, the federal government has been in the business of attempting to regulate, subsidize, and decrease the prices of things like housing, higher education, and energy, but their prices have only gone steadily upward following Washington’s involvement, and their quality has arguably declined. Why? Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

My Top 100 Libertarians Blogs and Websites list (which I am in the process of revising and bringing up to date!) has been considered one of the most important libertarian resources on the Internet for a couple years now and has been an important feature of HumbleLibertarian.com. If you go to Google and search for "libertarian websites," odds are that this Top 100 list will be your first result. Well I'm at it again. Over at The Silver Underground blog , I'm working to create a list of Top 100 Sound Money Blogs for libertarians with a specific interest in finance, economics, and monetary policy. When it’s finalized and published, we expect this list to become a major resource for sound money advocates on the web. In order to qualify, blogs or websites should, of course, advocate sound money policies, and monetary policy should be at least a major if not primary focus of the website. Please share this post far and wide so we can get as many submissions and nom...

"Watch this you guys! I am now holding down inflation levels through mind control." Have you ever seen those short infomercials about some pill that you can take before a night of heavy drinking and *using my smooth, deep, infomercial announcer voice* magically wake up refreshed and alert the next day! No more headaches! No more hangovers! Our proprietary, patent-pending formula has been proven in clinical trials to… blah blah blah, blahblah blah blah… yours today for only $19.99! Yeah, I never believed those commercials and I never ordered their little pill. Actions have consequences. Drinking too much will stress the body in all kinds of nasty ways that lead to a hangover the next day. You’ll feel good while you’re doing it, but there’s just no such thing as a magic pill to avoid the effects of partying hard. I also don’t believe the Federal Reserve’s new approach to quantitative easing that could boost the economy without causing inflation. I’m actually ...