VRG Reader: Markets Not Capitalism

• Charles Johnson and Gary Chartier (eds.), Markets Not Capitalism, 1st ed. (Minor Compositions: 2011) will be the source for most of the readings in our VRG. You can obtain a copy directly from the publishers, or from the usual online bookstores. You can also read it online if you don’t mind giant PDF blobs.

In addition to the readings from Markets Not Capitalism, there will be a number of additional primary and supplementary readings that we will discuss to give more in-depth treatments to particular topics and offer additional context. Readings that aren’t in Markets Not Capitalism will be made available online. Here are links to the additional readings throughout the VRG.

Session 3: A Question of Ownership.

• Murray N. Rothbard (1969), Massacre at People’s Park, in The Libertarian Forum I.VI (June 15, 1969). 1. (PDF at Mises.org)

Session 4: A Question of Knowledge.

• F.A. Hayek (1945), The Use of Knowledge in Society in American Economic Review XXXV.4 (Sep. 1945). 519-30. (HTML at EconLib).

• Nathan Goodman (2013), The Knowledge Problem of Privilege, at Liberty Minded (July 29, 2013)

Session 5: A Question of Scale.

• Read Coase^[1] (1937), The Nature of the Firm, from Economica N.S. 4.16 (Nov. 1937). 386-405.

Session 6: A Question of Identity.

• Dyer D. Lum (1890), Introduction and Fundamental Principles from The Economics of Anarchy: A Study of the Industrial Type (HTML at praxeology.net)

• Benj. R. Tucker (various/1897), selections from Instead of a Book, By A Man Too Busy To Write One: A Fragmentary Exposition of Philosophical Anarchism (HTML at fair-use.org):

  • Relation of the State to the Individual (1890). 21-29.
  • Our Purpose (1881). 30-31.
  • Who Is The Somebody? (1881). 177-178.
  • The Sin of Herbert Spencer (1884). 370-371
  • Rights and Duties Under Anarchy (1887) 58-60.
  • Should Labor Be Paid or Not? (1888). 403-404
  • Armies that Overlap (1890). 363-365.

Session 7: A Question of Activism.

• Sharon Presley & Lynn Kinsky (1976), Government is Women’s Enemy, Association of Libertarian Feminists Discussion Paper (HTML at alf.org)

• Lucinda Cisler (1970), Abortion Law Repeal (Sort Of): A Warning to Women, in Notes from the Second Year. (eBook at Duke University Libraries. Alternative HTML version at fair-use.org)

• Charles Johnson (2011). Women and the Invisible Fist: How Violence Against Women Enforces the Unwritten Law of Patriarchy. There are several drafts of this paper, prepared for different audiences. I recommend reading the December 2010/March 2011 Molinari Society version (2010.1217-2), which is about 20pp in length and was prepared for audiences already somewhat familiar with libertarian writing.

• Ellen Willis (1970). Women and the Myth of Consumerism, in Ramparts (June 1970). 13-16. (PDF at unz.org. Alternative HTML version at fair-use.org.)

• Betsy Brown (2000). A Radical Dyke Experiment for the Next Century: 5 Things to work for Instead of Same-Sex Marriage, from off our backs 30.1 (January 2000). 24.

Session 8: A Question of Ethos

• Karl Hess (1969). The Death of Politics, from Playboy (March 1969). (HTML at fare.tunes.org)

• Jason Lee Byas (2014). Toward an Anarchy of Production (Part I) from The New Leveller 1.1 and Toward an Anarchy of Production (Part II) from The New Leveller 1.2. (HTML at s4ss.org)

• Emma Goldman (1910). Minorities versus Majorities, in Anarchism and Other Essays (1910/1917). (HTML at Berkeley Digital Library: The Emma Goldman Papers)

1. ^[1]lol↩

As we approach the New Year, we naturally think of ends, and of beginnings; what has changed, and what we have lost. So hey, libertarians, let’s all get together and feel sorry about the golden age of Limited Government and Individual Liberty we have lost. Remember the ancient liberties that we all enjoyed only 60 years ago, back in the 1950s? Back when all military-age men were subject to the draft, people were being interrogated before a permanent committee of Congress over their political beliefs, the FBI was conducting massive illegal wiretapping, surveillance and disruption against nonviolent civil rights activists, the National Security Agency was established as a completely secret surveillance arm of the federal government, it was illegal for married or unmarried women to buy basic birth control, it was made illegal for anyone to buy any scheduled drug without a doctor’s prescription, government was conducting medical experiments on unwilling human subjects^[1], Urban Renewal was demolishing the core of every major U.S. city to build government highways and housing projects, and massive community-wide immigration raids were terrorizing undocumented migrants throughout the Southwest.

Or like back in the 1940s when government spending was over 50% of GDP, nearly the entire consumer economy was subject to government rationing, Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps, and a secret government conspiracy was building an entire network of secret cities in order to build atomic bombs to drop on civilian centers.

Or like back in the 1930s when the entire institutional groundwork of the New Deal was being implemented, Roosevelt was making himself president-for-life, government attempted to seize all gold or silver bullion in private hands, the federal government first instituted the Drug War, Jim Crow was the law of the land, Congress created the INS, Jews fleeing the incipient Holocaust in Europe were being turned away by immigration authorities, and psychiatrists were using massive electric shocks or literally mutilating the brains of women and men confined to asylums.

Or like the 1920s when it was illegal to buy alcoholic drinks anywhere in the United States, tariff rates were nearly 40% on dutiable imports, Sacco and Vanzetti were murdered by the state of Massachusetts, the Invisible Empire Second Era Klan effectively took over the state governments of Colorado, Indiana, and Alabama, hundreds of black victims were massacred in race riots in Tulsa and Rosewood, when Congress created the Federal Radio Commission^[2], the US Border Patrol, passed the Emergency [sic] Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924, and the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the authority of the state to forcibly sterilize women deemed “feeble-minded” or “promiscuous” for eugenic purposes.

Or the 1910s, when the federal government seized control of foreign-owned companies to facilitate production of chemical weapons, imposed the first-ever use of federal conscription to fight an overseas war, invaded Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico^[3], Russia, and Europe, passed criminal anarchy and criminal syndicalism statutes, tried and convicted hundreds of people for belonging to radical unions, imprisoned hundreds of people for protesting the draft during World War I (ordered by the President of the United States and upheld by the Supreme Court in one of its most radical anti-free-speech decisions), deported hundreds of people solely for holding anti-state political beliefs, the Mann Act made it illegal to “transport women across statelines for immoral purposes” [sic], the Colorado National Guard machine-gunned and burned alive striking miners and their families in order to break a UMWA organizing campaign, and Congress created the Federal Reserve, the Income Tax, the Espionage Act, and the Sedition Act.

Or maybe like the 1900s. . . . .

1. ^[1]See also the biological and radiological experiments documented here, and the Guatemala syphilis experiment conducted from 1946-1948.↩
2. ^[2]Created in 1926; later converted into the Federal Communications Commission in 1934.↩
3. ^[3]In 1914, and then again in 1916-1917↩

Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson
Published by Minor Compositions

To-day (Thursday 12/12) at 9pm US/Eastern, 8pm US/Central time, my co-editor Gary Chartier will be appearing on the John Stossel show on Fox Business Network, to discuss our book, Markets Not Capitalism. We just got confirmation from the show that the segment would be airing tonight; here’s a blurb from the show’s blog:

MARKETS NOT CAPITALISM: Gary Chartier, co-editor of Markets Not Capitalism, says there’s actually a lot to hate about capitalism when the word suggests capitalists using political connections to get special privileges. . . .

Well, that’s not really quite the point of the book.^[1] But of course we appreciate the chance to talk about some of the themes and to get the good word out.

Setcher DVRs. Markets Not Capitalism is coming to prime time.

WHO: Gary Chartier
WHAT: Prime-time interview on Markets Not Capitalism
WHEN: Thursday, 12 December 2013 9pm EST (8pm Central)
WHERE: John Stossel show, Fox Business News

1. ^[1]Cf. illud, hoc, and Is this all just a semantic debate?, if’n you’re looking for a different sort of gloss on the point of the book.↩

It’s Sunday. Everybody get Shameless.

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