Three New Articles on The Libertarian Alliance BlogContact Details: Dr Sean Gabb
07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk 

 

Three new publications today. Please feel free to comment on them as you please. I'll remind you that we only take comments down if they are obvious spam or seem likely to get us into trouble. All else is free. By the way, two of these articles are sceptical about the morality and the utility of open borders. If anyone has a decent libertarian essay in favour of open borders, we'll be glad to provide balance to the debate. SIG

A Response to James Snell on War, Immigration and the Monarchy

by Keir Martland
A Response to James Snell on War, Immigration and the Monarchy
There is no single definition of libertarianism on which all self-proclaimed libertarians could agree just as there is no definitive list of ‘libertarian political positions’. But, surely some things don’t need to be made explicit? Surely, libertarians ought to be anti-war, for instance? Some issues are perhaps inevitably more difficult: it may be the case that there is no one, true libertarian stance on immigration – as Stephan Kinsella might argue – or it could just be a matter of personal preference whether or not one wants a monarchy or a democracy. Nevertheless, there are ways of looking at these two issues – democracy (or monarchy) and immigration – which are sufficiently anti-state.
And I am of the opinion that James Snell of ‘The Libertarian’ has taken statist positions on military intervention, immigration and monarchy. In the course of this essay, I will respond to three of his articles: one in which he defends mass-immigration; one in which he attacks the monarchy; and another in which he supports military intervention in Syria. Before I go any further, I will say that this is not a personal attack and the fact that all three articles which I am attempting to refute are Snell’s isn’t that significant, in my opinion. I picked these three articles to discuss because I simply disagree with each of them and because they can all be linked together easily. Continue reading →

Libertarians and the Banks

by D.J. Webb
We were told today by the Office for Budget Responsibility that rising longevity will mean another blow-out in the public finances by 2062. Health, pension and social care spending will all rise rapidly.
I am not trying to play devil’s advocate in the Libertarian Alliance here, but to flag up a necessary discussion. All libertarian analyses so far have tended to just affirm that privatising everything will solve this problem. True, if health, retirement provision and social care provision are all privatised, and presumably income tax and national insurance abolished, it would remove the implications for the **public** finances of demographic ageing.
But the implications are still there for the economy as a whole. The difference is that, after privatisation, it becomes a private financial problem. However these matters are handled – this is the key point – spending in these areas will have to rise as a proportion of GDP. Even if that spending is purely privately undertaken, it will still need to rise as an overall percentage of UK GDP. Continue reading →

Family, Nationhood and Immigration

Family, Nationhood and Immigration
by Swithun Dobson
“We are a nation of immigrants”, is a popular refrain from politicians and activists alike in the immigration debate, however they never actually define who the “we” are. On a trivial level everyone is an immigrant: assuming common descent from the Mesopotamian Adam or the African mitochondrial Eve, the Western peoples are clearly not native to their lands; nor, for that matter, are the Australian Aborigines. Yet the above statement is always in the context of a particular country, for example, Britain. So what the “we” actually means is the physical topography which is Britain but why should physical topography be the dominant factor in the debate? Unless you are going to endow a certain region personhood, making a literal pantheistic mother Britain, this is clearly mostly irrelevant since immigration is about people. Thus, you are left with physical, biological lineage as the primary factor of nationh ood: the one subject deliberately barred from public debate. Continue reading →


The Libertarian Alliance (Carbon Positive since 1979)director@libertarian.co.uk Tel: 07956 472 199

Postal Address: Suite 35, 2 Lansdowne Row, London W1J 6HL, England

Subscribe to LA Blog