Inaugural Post

Welcome to my new blog Tu Ne Cede Malis, or Do No Evil!

My job requires a lot of travel and a lot of "me" time which inevitably leads  to me having conversations with myself and working out arguments on a lot of subjects (usually political/economical) in my head. Unfortunately working out these problems in my head is of no real use if I do not share and, most importantly, test them with other people.

So I decided to start this blog to do just that; share, discuss, and spread my ideas with family, friends, co-workers, and anybody else who happens to find this blog. If I can attract enough conversation then I would like to add a forum to the site. I may even compile all of my posts into a comprehensive theory of social interaction (aka economics) and publish a book.

I must stress, however, that the ideas and opinions I hold are not something I magically developed over night, but are the outcome of a long journey I began about 2 years ago this month. As a matter of fact, most of the opinions (which I believe to be truths) I hold now are ideas that I flatly rejected when the journey began.

The ideas I wish to spread are not new. They are ideas championed by the great classical liberals such as John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Frederic Bastiat (The Law), John Stuart Mill (On Liberty). These men helped influence the next line of the champions of liberty like Ludwig von Mises (Human Action), F.A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom), Henry Hazlitt (Economics in One Lesson), Leonard Read (I, Pencil), and Milton Friedman (Capitalism and Freedom). Today's most well-known icon of the classical liberal tradition is of course non other than Ron Paul (The Revolution: A Manifesto).

The beliefs of the classical liberals could be summed up as this; governments are a necessary evil. Because it was evil, however, they demanded that the government should be minimized to basic legal (upholding contracts, courts) and defense (local police, military) services. They thought that combining a democratic government with a written constitution would be enough to check the growth of the government and prevent it from turning it into a despotic regime.

At some point in time these beliefs began to be challenged. The Anti-Federalists challenged the notion that the US Constitution could check the growth and power of the federal government. The Federalists (led by Alexander Hamilton, a loyal British nationalist) proclaimed that dividing the central government into 3 parts (Executive, Congress, Supreme Court) would create a "separation of powers" and each branch would provide a check upon the others. The Anti-Federalists quickly demolished this notion. Because all of the supposed checks were contained within the federal government itself it would be within the self-interest of the members of all branches to work together to expand all of their powers. Anyone who takes the time to read the Anti-Federalist Papers would be shocked at how prophetic their forecasts were.

Frederic Bastiat noted that man, in order to remove uneasiness, must eventually use labor. But labor, especially manual labor, is an uneasiness in itself. Therefore man seeks ways to eventually remove the need to perform labor. His only options are to save the necessary funds or to commit theft. Politics gives the man a third choice; use his power to vote to force taxes upon others. Thus Bastiat proved that once a government was given the power to tax the growth of government would be unlimited. History confirms this.

It was from the works of these challengers to the classical liberal tradition that led Murray Rothbard to the ultimate conclusion that not only are governments not necessary for civilization, they are the very destroyers of it. This idea has become commonly referred to as anarcho-capitalism or market-anarchy.

If there is one book I would recommend anyone to read it would be Ron Paul's The Revolution: A Manifesto followed by Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics. Both of these are relatively short and easy for anyone to read and understand.

I am aware to most reading this post that these views will come across as extremist and laughable. I most certainly did not accept them right away and I do not expect anyone else to. In future posts I will touch on the above subjects in much more detail. My only point for now is to show that the beliefs I hold are the outcome of hundreds of years of political and economical theory and historical observation.

I welcome all comments, although comments containing profanity will be deleted. I will also not engage in debates with commentors who wish to engage in ad hominem attacks or simply dismiss the ideas I put forth as simply "crazy" or "stupid".

While most of my posts will be of the economical/political nature, I will also post my thoughts on current events, sports, nutrition, etc. For example, if Syracuse basketball is not ranked #1 in both polls tomorrow morning I will surely be posting a furious rant on that.