By Per Bylund Rothbard wrote in the Libertarian Forum (v. 1, p. 184) that “… libertarians, if they have any personal philosophy beyond freedom from coercion, are supposed to be at the very least individualists.” Indeed, libertarianism holds high the rights and responsibilities of the sovereign individual: the right to self and to justly acquired property and thus the right not to be coerced or arbitrarily restricted; the responsibility for one’s own actions and the moral duty to respect and honor other individuals’ rights. Yet libertarianism, or at least a relatively large subset of proponents of libertarianism, has taken a strange collectivist turn in the recent years. This is evident in a number of issues, such as free trade, where libertarians used to be in agreement in principle, albeit not necessarily in all the details or the applications of those principles. In contrast, this new turn argues from a different starting point. Rather than the individual’s rights, the starting point for this group is instead a notion of the individual’s collective belonging and identity (such as one’s country or ethnicity). There has of course never been a problem for libertarians to recognize individuals for who they are, or choose to be, and thus within their preferred social and cultural context. No man is an island, and as social beings we are embedded in a context of community, culture, and tradition. The distinction between individualist and collectivist is not either-or, but which is primary: for collectivists, the individual is subjected to the will of the collective (or, in reality, the will of its leadership); for individualists, the collective has no right of its own but is subject to the individual’s choice to associate. For obvious reasons, the analysis of any state of affairs from a collectivist point of view is different than that …
Adventures in Uganda
By Marina Brierley Last February I had the privilege of attending a Liberty and Entrepreneurship camp in Uganda. Such an inspirational event – to meet so many ambitious, thoughtful young people interested and hungry for the ideas of Liberty. Many were from the University of Kisubi, near Kampala, where the event was held, but some from other Universities and a few even came from Kenya. Mugabi John Socrates (from ALED – Action for Liberty and Economic Development) and Adedayo Thomas were our dedicated hosts and organisers. The Vice Chancellor welcomed us warmly, sympathetic to the ideas of freedom and prosperity that seemed to be popular in this successful private university. The theme of the ‘camp’ was “Free Enterprise and Morality” – so vital to show that there is an inherent link between both concepts. Talks by Andy on ‘Why freedom? Principles of the Free market’, ‘10 technologies that will change the world’ and ‘Essentials of Entrepreneurship’ were enthusiastically received. Adedayo spoke on ‘The Foundations of Africa’s Economy and political freedom’ with considerable passion and flair. I contributed with a talk on ‘Education in the developing world’ which led to some discussion on the situation in Uganda and concluded with a talk on ‘Human Progress’ showing the amazing achievements that have been accomplished in the world where-ever and whenever free trade and entrepreneurship were allowed to flourish. Travelling around the country in the days prior to the camp (through Kampala and to Northern Uganda for a safari I could not resist) I had observed the land and its people. A congenial climate, fertile soil, in parts lush natural habitat but above all, a young, aspiring population eager to make their mark in the world. So much raw potential! Through discussion with new friends I learned that many had long since …
Kenli Schoolland – How digital marketing is fuelling a revolution in education
“Think about what you wanted at 18 (years old),” said Kenli Schoolland during a presentation at the Foolish Things Salon on Oahu, Hawaii. “Would you take a $200,000 bet that that’s what you wanted to do ten years later? . . . Or for the rest of your life?” asked Kenli. Kenli said that education around the world has changed as government has subsidized higher education. “With these federal loans, people started to take gambles. They started to bet on what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, with no money down.” Kenli showed that education today is changing — getting worse in the government, but getting much better outside the government. Inside the government system, Kenli said, debt is rising for college graduates. “The average debt is $35,000, though there are many that graduate with much more given that a college degree for four years can be upwards of $200,000.” What are people getting for that money? Many graduates today, said Kenli, are realizing that their degree isn’t worth what they paid for it, as job recruiters seek better qualified candidates with real world skills. However, Kenli said education outside the government sector is improving tremendously, where costs are falling and quality is rising. Online schools are one example where students can go take high quality courses for bargain prices. But another type of education is arising outside of the “school” model, in the form of digital marketing, said Kenli. “I’m sure maybe you’ve all seen an ad that says, ‘Earn $15,000 in passive income from your home!’ . . . so that’s a cheesy glimpse of it, but it’s actually part of a formula,” said Kenli. “People are being taught to market themselves . . . it’s actually creating a huge educational service, and it’s bringing …
Why Haven’t We Been To the Moon Again?
Why hasn’t there been any innovation in NASA? According to Ernest Hancock, Founder of Freedoms Phoenix, this is because NASA is a bureaucracy without incentives. However, private space travel is in the not too distant future. Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla, Space X, and Paypal said, “I want to die on Mars. Preferably not on impact.” Ernest Hancock gave many more examples in his talk about why he is optimistic about the future of the liberty movement at the 2015 Anarchapulco conference in Acapulco, Mexico.
Women Voyage to Economic Freedom
Women For Liberty (WFL) is determined to liberate women of Nepal from social constraints that prevent them from becoming entrepreneurs. Thus, we flew west to Nepalgunj where, like all other places in Nepal, women are deprived of participation in the market. Women were empowered by USAID via the Fatima Foundation of Nepal to form a community saving forum–a trend famous everywhere in Nepal. In this system all members of a group deposit money weekly or monthly for future security in order to take loans at other times in order to survive. They have developed good savings strategies, but do these really ensure a long-term opportunity for income creation? Saving money from seasonal agriculture rarely left them with any funds for other seasons. In order to bring about good investment practices, our executive member, Jyoti, and local coordinators Sajjan and Lubna organized an intensive workshop “Women Investment for Freedom” in rural Nepalgunj last October with 26 participants. They connected these women with local enterprises who were kind enough to provide investment advice. One of the facilitators, Aanjali Yadav (age 26), tried to start a micro organic shop which was blocked by official registration obstacles. But today, with the help of WFL she is able to place her products in the market and proudly stops worrying about legal registration problems. She recognizes that savings, of course, helped her future security, but investment has guaranteed cash in her hand all the times. And among many of our participants, Gita Khatik (age 45), a mother of 4 daughters and 2 sons, was the ideal saver, but couldn’t get ahead because of the damage to her land and crops from the annual flooding. Our efforts gave her the idea of an alternative occupation for independent earnings, so she decided to invest a small amount of …
Shoemaker Dratevka and the Dragon
By Stephen Browne A long, long time ago in the land called Poland, there was a Prince called Krak who built a castle on a hill called Vavel near the river Vistula and invited people from all over to come and live nearby. You see, the land near the river was a very good place for a city. There were broad fields that were just right for growing crops and grassy meadows for raising sheep. The woods nearby were full of berry bushes for making kompot to drink and sweet jams and jellies. Prince Krak told everybody that if they would come to live near his castle, he and his knights would protect them from anybody who wanted to take their land and sheep away from them. For you know, that as soon as people begin to make life better for themselves, someone will want to come and take what they have from them if they can. So, hardworking and honest men and women from many different places came to the city of Krak. First farmers and shepherds, and then as time went on, weavers to make cloth from the wool of the sheep, carpenters and brickmakers to make houses and furniture, shoemakers, tailors, brewers and merchants. The Visla was broad and deep near the city and the proud men of the mountains would come down every year on their rafts made of logs to sell in the great port of Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. They would stop in the city of Krak to rest and buy food for their journey. The people of the city would sell them fine woolen cloth to take with them on their rafts to sell to the merchants in Gdansk. The merchants would sell it to ship captains to …
Doug Casey on Opting-Out: from the state, formal education, and standard employment
Today we are launching a series on “Opting Out” of the system, where we will explore actionable methods of enhancing our individual liberty. To start the series off, we have with us today Doug Casey, the Chairman of Casey Research, who is not only a highly regarded authority in investment, but also in “internationalization”, which he believes is key to protecting oneself, as it keeps one from being dependent on any single government. His latest book Right on the Money, written together with Louis James, one of ISIL’s directors, has come out recently to give readers actionable advice on building and safeguarding their wealth. (Interview conducted on 28 Feb, 2014) Kenli Schoolland [KS]: Hi Doug, it’s great to have you with us. Doug Casey [DC]: Likewise, Kenli, thank you. I guess you’re in London as we speak? KS: Yes, how about yourself? DC: I’m in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which is a fashionable international beach resort in the backward little socialist country of Uruguay. It’s actually quite pleasant. But then I spent a couple of weeks in the Congo between wars and thought that was quite pleasant too. So perhaps I’m not as discriminating as some… KS: Sounds very nice. How do you choose your locations? Is there a trade off between sunshine and socialist governments? DC: Actually it’s hard to find a non-socialist, non-fascist or non-statist/collectivist/ progressive government anywhere in the world today. There’s almost no place you can go to escape them. They cover the face of the earth like a skin disease. And they’re all becoming more virulent and aggressive, which is disturbing. KS: So you might as well take it with sunshine? DC: Governments that are located in tropical areas do tend to be more overtly socialist, they’re mostly undisguised kleptocracies… that’s the bad news. The good news is that they also tend to …