WEBVTT NOTE Authors Forum: Libertarianism Today 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Our next presenter is Jacob Huber, and he's going to be talking to us today about his new book, Libertarianism Today. 2 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Thank you. My book, Libertarianism Today, isn't out just today, but it will be coming out in July. 3 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.000 And when it does, you'll be able to buy it from the Mises Institute on the Mises Institute website store. 4 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:34.040 Why should you buy libertarianism today? This is the book to buy, to give to your friends 5 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:38.440 who are curious as to what libertarianism is about. Your friends who are a little bit 6 00:00:38.440 --> 00:00:41.880 into politics, maybe seem like they'd be a little bit sympathetic, this is the book 7 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:46.200 you give them that kind of walks them through it. The first chapter, it tells them the basic 8 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:50.440 libertarian idea, it tells them that people should be allowed to do anything that's peaceful, 9 00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:55.160 killing and stealing, don't become okay when the government does them, things along these 10 00:00:55.160 --> 00:00:59.960 These lines, they're basic to libertarians, voluntary exchange and private property are 11 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:01.240 the best public policies. 12 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.560 These key concepts are laid out. 13 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:09.080 They're given a very, very concise presentation of the history of libertarian movement where 14 00:01:09.080 --> 00:01:11.300 it's been so far. 15 00:01:11.300 --> 00:01:16.920 From there in the next chapter, it tells them about the history of libertarian association 16 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:22.600 with conservatives, why libertarians aren't conservatives, why the libertarians increasingly 17 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:26.940 only rejects any association with the right side of the political spectrum and explains 18 00:01:26.940 --> 00:01:30.680 why libertarians aren't like modern day liberals either. 19 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:35.560 From there it goes into a variety of substantive areas. For example, the third chapter is about 20 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:39.920 the economy. There are people out there like Richard Posner, for example, who are saying 21 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:45.680 we have an economic and financial crisis because the Bush administration was so wedded to libertarian 22 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:52.180 policies. And so the chapter explains why this is ridiculous, what free market money 23 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:56.100 Money really is about a free market monetary system, why we wouldn't have this sort of 24 00:01:56.100 --> 00:02:03.680 thing in very concise summary form if we did have free market money, and it explains the 25 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:10.080 roles also of Austrian libertarian economists, people such as Mark Thornton, other writers 26 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:14.280 associated with the Mises Institute, how they were nearly alone in predicting the crisis 27 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:20.940 that we had, and of course it also documents the prophecies of Ron Paul and Peter Schiff. 28 00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:25.460 From there it gets into a number of other topics, chapter by chapter, topics like healthcare, 29 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:28.060 education, war, drugs. 30 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:32.020 For each one of these I made an effort to put it into some historical context to show 31 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:35.820 how it's really not the case that libertarianism hasn't been tried. 32 00:02:35.820 --> 00:02:41.100 For any given area you can think of, we basically have had more or less libertarianism at some 33 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:42.100 point. 34 00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:46.900 And so I try to show how these things have worked in the past and why this gives us reason 35 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:56.220 I also made an effort, which may be in contrast with some earlier introductory books on libertarianism, 36 00:02:56.220 --> 00:03:02.160 to emphasize that we don't have the unlibertarian policies that we do because there was originally 37 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:07.460 a widespread grassroots demand for them, or because there was a real need for them, but 38 00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:13.820 because powerful special interests, particularly big business, sought these things, saw ways 39 00:03:13.820 --> 00:03:18.220 to use government to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense, which is sometimes 40 00:03:18.220 --> 00:03:23.000 maybe gets lost amid everything else. Of course, there have been other introductions 41 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.660 to libertarianism, and so you might wonder why you should buy this one if you have others 42 00:03:27.660 --> 00:03:31.740 or if there are others available. Of course, Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty is the 43 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:37.980 classic work along these lines and is irreplaceable and is still extremely relevant after nearly 44 00:03:37.980 --> 00:03:43.860 for 40 years, David Bowes' book on libertarianism is pretty good too. 45 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:50.080 This one is a little different, I hope that it's maybe the most accessible libertarian 46 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:54.800 introduction that's out there now, it really doesn't assume any familiarity with political 47 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:00.780 theory, any familiarity with economics, it just assumes that you're a reasonably intelligent 48 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:06.800 person who is interested in politics, follows it, thinks about it and has heard about libertarianism 49 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:36.800 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. 50 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:42.300 It gives a very prominent place to the work of the Mises Institute and its publishing and its website. 51 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:47.800 One of my favorite things about the book is that I have an opportunity to put in lots of suggestions for further readings, 52 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:53.300 and for most of them I can put in a URL where people can just type this thing into their computer 53 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:59.300 and bring the book up for free online and just move right on into their further libertarian education. 54 00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:02.300 It gets into things other people are doing in the libertarian movement. 55 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:06.300 It talks a little bit about the Free State Project, talks about the activism in the courts, 56 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:09.900 reports, people doing the Heller gun case, things of that sort. 57 00:05:09.900 --> 00:05:15.100 And it also addresses the fact that libertarians don't agree about all this stuff, the US Constitution, 58 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:16.100 for example. 59 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:17.700 Some libertarians want nothing to do with it. 60 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:22.320 Some want to use a centralist 14th Amendment strategy with the Constitution. 61 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:26.280 Some want to use a decentralized 10th Amendment strategy with the Constitution. 62 00:05:26.280 --> 00:05:31.200 And some people like me see a little bit of merit, at least, in all of those positions. 63 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:34.960 So it talks about that, without, I hope, being too partisan, just kind of laying it out there 64 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:38.640 here so people can see what it's about, evaluate it for themselves, go into further reading 65 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:39.640 for themselves. 66 00:05:39.640 --> 00:05:41.680 I am partisan on the issue of war. 67 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:45.960 I discuss that from the libertarian view and argue that the only libertarian view is the 68 00:05:45.960 --> 00:05:51.560 anti-war view and talk about libertarian history of opposition to war. 69 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.460 The book's newness also means it can incorporate the latest thinking in various libertarian 70 00:05:56.460 --> 00:05:57.460 ideas. 71 00:05:57.460 --> 00:06:00.160 There's a chapter on intellectual property, for instance. 72 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.560 In the past, libertarians seem to have been uncertain about this, but I think increasingly 73 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:08.880 Libertarians are coming over to the view that patents and copyrights are unjustified 74 00:06:08.880 --> 00:06:13.000 and so it addresses that new development. 75 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.640 So as I said, the book will be available from the Mises Institute in July, so you can't 76 00:06:16.640 --> 00:06:20.480 buy it now, but you can, we'll have this in the bookstore, you can put your email address 77 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.180 on a list and if you do that, you'll not only get a notice telling you when it's available 78 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:29.960 to buy, you get a coupon code to give yourself 15% off, I'm told that people who are listening 79 00:06:29.960 --> 00:06:44.960 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. 80 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:48.960 So, I hope people buy the book and I hope they find it helpful. Thank you.