Income taxes are voluntary

One of the fundamental splits between libertarians and left-liberals is the two groups’ understanding of voluntariness. For libertarians, voluntariness is a purely procedural notion. Any agreement made without active force or fraud counts as voluntary, regardless of what else obtains about the agreement. If you are on the verge of starvation and you sign an… Continue reading Income taxes are voluntary

Equity financing for college education

In the New York Times today, Luigi Zingales floated out what most probably consider a terrible idea for financing college education: private investors buying out equity stakes in students’ future income. Investors could finance students’ education with equity rather than debt. In exchange for their capital, the investors would receive a fraction of a student’s… Continue reading Equity financing for college education

Remember oil price hysteria?

Back in February, a short-term spike in oil prices managed to find itself into the cacophony of stupidity that is right-wing cable and television programming. The sentiments expressed ranged from Obama being a failure because he cannot control oil prices to Obama conspiring to raise oil prices to serve his environmentalist agenda. I had a… Continue reading Remember oil price hysteria?