The Cross Section - RMB Blog

  The Ethics Of Liberty - Murray Rothbard Robinson Crusoe doesn't stay alone for long.  Soon he encounters Friday or Bob, or Steve.  Then come many others who are also doing their best to survive on the island.  They will all enter into the process of ownership, production, and consumption.  But if that is all they do, they will all be bound by their personal limitations.  However, if they work together in trade, they will all vastly improve their material situation.  This is part of the natural law of mankind.                 "Economics has revealed a great truth about the natural law of human                    interaction: that not only is production essential to man's prosperity and                     survival, but so also is exchange." Exchange benefits humans because there is a high level of diversity between individuals.  In other words, inequality is important if humans are to benefit one another.  For example, maybe Crusoe is really good at growing wheat wh

  The Ethics Of Liberty - Murray Rothbard The next section of the book contains the meat of Rothbard's theory of liberty.  His exercise consists of thinking through what it takes for a man to sustain life using the character of Robinson Crusoe as an example.  He starts with what one individual all alone must do to survive and then in the following chapters adds characters in order to explore how an individual can have liberty within society.                 "Let us consider Crusoe, who has landed on his island, and, to simplify                    matters, has contracted amnesia." In that state Crusoe first notices his own body, his consciousness, and the world around him.  However he doesn't know anything about them.  Shortly, he will sense that he has different needs or wants through hunger, fatigue, or exposure to weather.  It will become clear to him that he must satisfy these needs in order to stay alive.  After that Crusoe will have wants that will make himself