Authors Forum: Libertarianism Today

0:00Our next presenter is Jacob Huber, and he's going to be talking to us today about his new book, Libertarianism Today.

0:15Thank you. My book, Libertarianism Today, isn't out just today, but it will be coming out in July. And when it does, you'll be able to buy it from the Mises Institute on the Mises Institute website store. Why should you buy libertarianism today? This is the book to buy, to give to your friends who are curious as to what libertarianism is about. Your friends who are a little bit into politics, maybe seem like they'd be a little bit sympathetic, this is the book you give them that kind of walks them through it. The first chapter, it tells them the basic libertarian idea, it tells them that people should be allowed to do anything that's peaceful, killing and stealing, don't become okay when the government does them, things along these These lines, they're basic to libertarians, voluntary exchange and private property are the best public policies.

1:01These key concepts are laid out. They're given a very, very concise presentation of the history of libertarian movement where it's been so far. From there in the next chapter, it tells them about the history of libertarian association with conservatives, why libertarians aren't conservatives, why the libertarians increasingly only rejects any association with the right side of the political spectrum and explains why libertarians aren't like modern day liberals either. From there it goes into a variety of substantive areas. For example, the third chapter is about the economy. There are people out there like Richard Posner, for example, who are saying we have an economic and financial crisis because the Bush administration was so wedded to libertarian policies. And so the chapter explains why this is ridiculous, what free market money Money really is about a free market monetary system, why we wouldn't have this sort of thing in very concise summary form if we did have free market money, and it explains the roles also of Austrian libertarian economists, people such as Mark Thornton, other writers

2:10associated with the Mises Institute, how they were nearly alone in predicting the crisis that we had, and of course it also documents the prophecies of Ron Paul and Peter Schiff. From there it gets into a number of other topics, chapter by chapter, topics like healthcare, education, war, drugs. For each one of these I made an effort to put it into some historical context to show how it's really not the case that libertarianism hasn't been tried. For any given area you can think of, we basically have had more or less libertarianism at some point. And so I try to show how these things have worked in the past and why this gives us reason I also made an effort, which may be in contrast with some earlier introductory books on libertarianism, to emphasize that we don't have the unlibertarian policies that we do because there was originally a widespread grassroots demand for them, or because there was a real need for them, but because powerful special interests, particularly big business, sought these things, saw ways

3:13to use government to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense, which is sometimes maybe gets lost amid everything else. Of course, there have been other introductions to libertarianism, and so you might wonder why you should buy this one if you have others or if there are others available. Of course, Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty is the classic work along these lines and is irreplaceable and is still extremely relevant after nearly for 40 years, David Bowes' book on libertarianism is pretty good too. This one is a little different, I hope that it's maybe the most accessible libertarian introduction that's out there now, it really doesn't assume any familiarity with political theory, any familiarity with economics, it just assumes that you're a reasonably intelligent person who is interested in politics, follows it, thinks about it and has heard about libertarianism It's also different from those in that it's very current. The publisher, when they were looking for someone to do this book, they wanted a current events book. They wanted someone to address current controversies. Things like the economic crisis, the healthcare debate, things of that sort. And so it's current in a way, as current in the book publishing world as a book can be in that respect. It's also a little different in that it talks about the libertarian movement. It talks about the people out there who are advancing these ideas.

4:36It gives a very prominent place to the work of the Mises Institute and its publishing and its website. One of my favorite things about the book is that I have an opportunity to put in lots of suggestions for further readings, and for most of them I can put in a URL where people can just type this thing into their computer and bring the book up for free online and just move right on into their further libertarian education. It gets into things other people are doing in the libertarian movement. It talks a little bit about the Free State Project, talks about the activism in the courts, reports, people doing the Heller gun case, things of that sort. And it also addresses the fact that libertarians don't agree about all this stuff, the US Constitution, for example. Some libertarians want nothing to do with it. Some want to use a centralist 14th Amendment strategy with the Constitution.

5:22Some want to use a decentralized 10th Amendment strategy with the Constitution. And some people like me see a little bit of merit, at least, in all of those positions. So it talks about that, without, I hope, being too partisan, just kind of laying it out there here so people can see what it's about, evaluate it for themselves, go into further reading for themselves. I am partisan on the issue of war. I discuss that from the libertarian view and argue that the only libertarian view is the anti-war view and talk about libertarian history of opposition to war. The book's newness also means it can incorporate the latest thinking in various libertarian ideas. There's a chapter on intellectual property, for instance. In the past, libertarians seem to have been uncertain about this, but I think increasingly Libertarians are coming over to the view that patents and copyrights are unjustified and so it addresses that new development.

6:13So as I said, the book will be available from the Mises Institute in July, so you can't buy it now, but you can, we'll have this in the bookstore, you can put your email address on a list and if you do that, you'll not only get a notice telling you when it's available to buy, you get a coupon code to give yourself 15% off, I'm told that people who are listening If you're listening online or watching online, if they send an email to shopmises.org and they put Hubert on libertarianism in the subject line, that's my name Hubert on libertarianism, put that in the subject line and you'll get the coupon code too. So, I hope people buy the book and I hope they find it helpful. Thank you.