Author: Matt Bruenig

In my prior post, I wrote about the way that the involuntary coercive violence inherent in property ownership means that those who advocate it cannot consistently oppose taxes on the grounds that taxation is involuntary coercive violence. Here I want to detail one thing libertarians can and have done, in some of my engagements, to… Continue reading The other move on property

Libertarians are not the brightest bulbs. So I want to explain how my obviously correct argument that property is coercive violence works in debates. As a refresher, property is obviously coercive violence because it involves someone excluding everyone else in the world from some piece of the world without their consent and threatening violence against… Continue reading How the property is coercive violence move functions in the debate

I had a long conversation with Noah Smith on the twitter, which was fun. He asked that I first imagine that Person 1 and Person 2 own an apple and an orange respectively. Then he said imagine they 1) do not trade, or 2) trade them. He asks whether (1) or (2) has the same… Continue reading Baselines still useless, a reminder

Part one is here. I’ve been researching how judges deal with tenants using Section 8 vouchers who make claims against landlords for money damages. For instance, when a landlord does not properly maintain the unit (a breach of the implied warranty of habitability), a tenant is generally allowed to receive damages equal to a percentage… Continue reading The Myth of Ownership Affects Judges, Part II