For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto (Paperback)

However, Rothbard argues that the very existence of the State violates man's rights and is incompatible with freedom, even in a democratic society. This is an problem many libertarian scholars have struggled with in attempting to justify limited government. Rothbard faces no such inconsistency.

First, Rothbard introduces the concept of man's rights, establishing that the only valid right can be the right to self-ownership and ownership of one's property. With these principles -- along with the traditional libertarian non-aggression axiom -- Rothbard offers meaningful solutions to the reams of problems in today's society. He makes a forceful case that our problems would be easily solved following principles of the free market, private property, and non-aggression. Education, welfare, free speech, pollution, crime...Rothbard tackles numerous issues with great insight and clarity. In my opinion, the only significant issue he doesn't really explore is healthcare, but hey...it's a short book. (For an excellent libertarian exploration of the healthcare issue [among MANY other things], see Dr. Mary J. Ruwart's definitive _Healing Our World_. Amazon sells it.)

Rothbard introduces many ideas in this book that would be dubbed "radical" by most -- the abolishment of government police services, courts, and national defense being the most obvious. But he also believes in unlimited free speech -- this means there would be nothing illegal about blackmail or libel in a libertarian society. To most, many libertarians included, these ideas are difficult to get one's head around.

Large chapters are devoted to education, welfare, private roads, crime & private security, ecology, conservation of resources, and national defense. Some have accused Rothbard of skipping out on the private police/courts system, but this book is not a 1000-page treatise. He offers theory and historical evidence to support his ideas, but truthfully such a topic requires many books on its own. A good and short adjunct to Rothbard's ideas here is Hans-Hermann Hoppe's brilliant article "The Private Production of Defense", from the Journal of Libertarian Studies. Some good books on the issue are _The Enterprise of Law_ and _To Serve and Protect_, both by Bruce Benson, and _The Structure of Liberty_ by Randy Barnett. I believe Amazon sells all of them.

I've read this book around ten times. Worth owning if you care about where the world is headed.

Dispensing with such ideologies as democracy, fascism, and communism, Rothbard reaches back to the tradition of the early American Republic to find support for his views. The American Revolution, he writes, "resulted in governments unprecedented in restrictions placed on their power," and the forces of big government triumphed only when the libertarian Democratic party was split over slavery. Rothbard is not at all ambiguous about what the post-Civil War statist order has brought: war, militarism, protectionism, and government-sponsored corporate monopoly, none of which benefit the great mass of people. While it may seem odd to see the son of Jewish immigrants championing the unfashionable ideals of our Founding Fathers, Rothbard makes a powerful case for a return to our country's roots.

In place of a tax-financed government parcelling out benefits to its subjects, Rothbard advocates a free and voluntary society based on individual property rights. The right of property, whether in one's person or in material objects, is the right from which all other rights proceed: freedom of speech, of religion, of assemly, of the press, and any other right you can think of. If the state can abridge property rights, by extension it can abridge any other right. Rejecting the idea that a government can be a guarantor of liberty and security, Rothbard substitutes an axiom of nonaggression, claiming that property rights are of necessity inviolable and violence, theft, and coercion of any kind are inherently criminal. Rather than utilitarian concerns, Rothbard's belief in nonaggression is grounded in his perception of morality, making it perhaps the only consistent, workable moral absolute that mankind has yet developed. However, Rothbard hastens to point out that his doctrines would advance the material as well as the moral well-being of society, and comes up with plenty of evidence to back up his claim.

In his early section on the State, Rothbard provides the reader with the ultimate devastation of the view of government as a force for good. His chief target is the double standard by which governments routinely get away with doing things that would be roundly condemned if private individuals or groups were to commit them. In Rothbard's view, any aggression against the person or property of another is immoral and illegal, and he sees the state as the ultimate aggressor against property rights. Only the State is allowed to trample on the rights of individuals, which it justifies with euphemisms like "war," "taxation," and "consciption." For these terms, Rothbard substitutes, respectively, "mass murder," "robbery," and "slavery." And given the fact that governments the world over (ours included, though communist systems are of course much worse) spent the twentieth century engaging in activities that made the September 11 attacks look like a street mugging, Rothbard's thesis bears contemplating whether you agree or not.

So, what exactly are the implications of the libertarian anti-state, free market ethos? Well, Rothbard thought of several, and much of the book is devoted to an application of his ideals of individual liberty and absolute property rights for a free society. Education, crime, monetary policy, eduation, pollution, and on into infinity: Rothbard claims these have become problematic issues because of government involvement, and only the libertarian principles of voluntarism and free trade can fix them. Rothbard argues that the free market has worked so well because it encourages competition, which gives those who provide any service an incentive to consistently please their customers, a motivation that a government monopoly lacks. No reasonable person would conclude that the provision of food and clothing should be nationalized; so why, Rothbard begs the question, is the State allowed to exert so much control over education, police protection, roads, or anything else for that matter? Rothbard can't think of a reason, and argues that government should never be allowed to interfere with the genius of the market.

Running through Rothbard's thesis is one nagging question: are his ideas workable? He claims that they have worked (see his discussion of Ireland's libertarian history prior to its conquest by Britain), and they can work again. Rothbard also hastens to point out that even if they're not perfect, libertarian societies would hardly be capable of the massive levels of violence and oppression that governments carry out on a regular basis. Rothbard's tour of American foreign policy and its imperialist bent over the past century is especially sobering and enlightening for his discussion of the destructive potential of ANY state, "democratic" or otherwise. Admittedly, many of the ideas contained in this book could be considered "radical," but far more pernicious ideas have come to dominate large parts of the world (Communism, anyone?). Considering some of the truly wacky ideas out there, Rothbard at least deserves to be heard. So read, and decide for yourself. Even if you're not converted to libertarianism, I can offer a virtual guarantee that your outlook on the world will be reoriented.