Front Matter

LIBERTARIAN PAPERS VOL. 2, ART. NO. 19 (2010)

REVIEW OF HUEBERT’S LIBERTARIANISM TODAY

W* ALTER E.BLOCK

LIBERTARIANISM TODAY. By Jacob Huebert. Santa Barbara, CA:

Praeger, 2010.

IT HAS GOTTEN TO THE POINT, nowadays, that whenever I see a new book out with “libertarian” or “libertarianism” in the title, I cringe. It is not because I don’t think that on net balance, they are not all forces for the good. They are. Given that they at least spell the name of this philosophy correctly, they do more good than harm. The more publications of this sort the better. If we are to promote libertarianism, it cannot be done without continually keeping the concept of liberty in the public mind, and there are few better ways to do this than by publishing more and more volumes on this topic.

But, on the other hand, and, believe me, there is another hand, I still cringe when I peruse such titles. For example, consider Murray, 1997. Gordon’s 1997 title of the review of this book says it all: “Nationalize Education and Other Libertarian Ideas.” To claim that libertarianism requires public schools, let alone vast new public expenditures on education is enough to register a high value on my cringe-o-meter. Tucker, 1997 reviews Boaz, 1997 and says:

On health care, Social Security, education, and foreign policy, we don’t get principled theorizing so much as we get half-way and half—baked policy plans for vouchers, Medical Savings Accounts …, the line-item veto, and revenue diversions of Social Security from bonds to stocks …. In short, Boaz presents libertarianism not as a radical and fundamental challenge to the socialist and social-democratic consensus that has dominated this century and erected the largest and most intrusive governments in human history.

*Walter E. Block (www.WalterBlock.com; wblock@loyno.edu) is Harold E. Wirth

Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Prof. of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans and a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

CITE THIS ARTICLE AS: Walter E. Block, “Review of Huebert’s Libertarianism Today,”

Libertarian Papers 2, 19 (2010). ONLINE AT: libertarianpapers.org. THIS ARTICLE IS subject toa Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (creativecommons.org/licenses).

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Continues Tucker:

Sometimes, Boaz’s progressivism runs headlong into libertarian doctrine itself. He argues that the “progressive extension of dignity” to “women, to people of different religions and different races” is “one of the great libertarian triumphs of the Western world” (p. 16), and he quotes proto-socialist Martin Luther King on civil rights (p. 229). Yet, as anyone who has tangled with the enforcement arm of the government’s anti-discrimination police knows, this “dignity” has come at the expense of two fundamental rights: that of private property and that of association ….

A third cringe-o-meter entry is Miron, 2010 who attacks free enterprise money (gold). He states: “Precious metals used as money are not available for jewelry, statues, and so on. This is perhaps a minor issue if a gold standard in fact improves the conduct of monetary policy, but it is a cost nevertheless. In practice, gold standards have often worked badly.” Oh, give me a break. Everything has an alternative or opportunity cost. That is hardly a legitimate argument against anything. “Worked badly?” Well, yes, because they were not allowed to work, and, in any case, worked badly compared to what? The Fed? It is to laugh. Miron claims that taxes are compatible with libertarianism because “taxes are justified in every society,” not even mentioning, let alone attempting to refute, the strong anarcho-libertarian part of the movement that would take strenuous exception to this statement. He prominently mentions Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek as libertarians, forsooth, while ignoring Murray Rothbard.

But, enough with the cringe-o-meter. My purpose today is to review a really excellent new libertarian book, Jacob Huebert’s Libertarianism Today (Huebert, 2010). I first became aware of this young scholar when I read his critique (Huebert, 2002) of Mark Skousen, then president of FEE, who not only offered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani its precious podium, but was even willing to pay him, big bucks as it turned out, to address one of its functions. After reading Huebert’s response, I said to myself, “Wow. This kid has got what it takes.” Nothing in the eight years between those two dates has in the least changed my assessment. Only, we are now looking at the work of a young but mature scholar, not a complete newcomer.

Libertarianism Today is organized around eleven different chapters, each of them a gem in its own right. In chapter 1, “What Is Libertarianism?” Huebert begins on the right foot: “Is libertarianism an idea whose time has come? Maybe not. In 2008, Americans elected a president who openly urges a bigger, more invasive government.” This is obviously correct, and so different from the “rah, rah” perspective of some of the “libertarians” REVIEW: HUEBERT’S LIBERTARIANISM TODAY3

mentioned above, who seem to think we have already achieved this goal. Our author correctly grounds this philosophy in Murray (“Murray who?” in some circles) Rothbard’s non-aggression principle, and, even has the temerity to apply this vital insight to the state: “If one person cannot steal money from another, then the government (which is made up only of individual people) should not be allowed to forcibly take money from people, even if it is called taxation.” If Huebert is supporting libertarianism, and he is, he is, then whatever it is that Miron favors, it must be a very different philosophy.

There is always the danger of needlessly excluding people from the libertarian tent. Huebert puts paid to that, in sharp contrast to the Randians who insist upon only one route to this basic premise: “To accept libertarianism, at least in its purest form, one has to agree with the non-aggression principle—the idea that it is wrong to defraud or use aggressive force against another person. Why would someone accept that idea? Libertarians do so for different reasons.” Whereupon he welcomes religious people, natural rightists, utilitarians, and others.

A consistent non-compromising libertarianism is defended throughout this book. In chapter 2 Huebert engages in a bit of product differentiation, thoroughly distinguishing us from both liberals and conservatives, while taking a well-justified swipe at the Nolan Chart (for ignoring foreign policy). In his chapter 3, “The Fight for the Economy,” he demonstrates that, contrary to some who really ought to know better, libertarians are not at all responsible for our present economic crisis. No, what I just wrote is true enough, but not really what I wanted to say about this splendid bit of economic analysis. So, let me try again: While reading Huebert’s utter evisceration of Richard Posner’s attack on Austro-libertarian analysis, I found it difficult to keep myself from jumping up and down screaming with glee to my friend Jacob and saying, “You go, boy; kick him in the crotch, again!” If ever there was an economist-legal philosopher who deserved to be taken down a peg or two or three, it is Posner; Huebert’s treatment of him is alone worth the price of admission to this entire book. Our author devotes his chapters 4 and 5 to “The Fight for Marijuana” and “Health Freedom.” One might say “no big deal” to this material, as all libertarians would certainly agree to legalization and a free market in health care. But, as usual, Huebert pushes the envelope: he includes all drugs, and the prescription system as well as the FDA. I have in my day read and written more than just a little bit about these two subjects, yet I learned a great deal from reading what he has to say about them. I especially enjoyed his section “Libertarian Heroes of the Medical Marijuana Movement” where he names the names, and tells their tales, as is his wont. You simply must read his description of the LifeSharers program.

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In chapter 6, The Fight for Educational Freedom, unlike some “libertarians,” Huebert gives the back of his hand to school vouchers and all such other statist policies. As well, bless him, he documents the anti-Catholic bias of our public schooling system.