“By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.” – Attributed to Mikhail Bakunin in Paolo Novaresio’s The Explorers ŸŸŸA revolutionary is someone who knows the political world in which they want to…

If you ask an economist to suggest areas where the state should be involved, one answer you’re likely to hear is that states should provide “public goods.” A public good is a good that is both non-excludable and non-rival. By non-excludable, economists mean that once the good is produced individuals cannot be excluded from consuming…

Entrepreneurs, or people who are alert to profit opportunities and act in order to obtain profits for themselves, exist in all societies. But the profit opportunities they seek will vary. Some entrepreneurs may seek to profit by providing consumers with goods they value, such as pizza or beer. Others may attempt to profit by seeking…

People who want to live in a society organized on the basis of peaceful, voluntary cooperation don’t want to be ruled by monopolists — by states. State authority is illegitimate, unnecessary, and dangerous. But that obviously leaves open the question: what do we do now, while we’re still under the state’s rule, to make our…

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Kevin Carson’s “The Desktop Regulatory State” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Kevin Carson’s “The Desktop Regulatory State“. $15.00 for…

The repeated denunciations of the “coup media,” which supposedly favors the impeachment (a “coup,” in the government’s supporters language), is interesting because it shows how short everyone’s memories are (“Novos discursos, o mesmo golpismo“, Carta Capital, April 4; “Deputado Paulo Pimenta publica roteiro de golpe jurídico-midiático em 13 passos“, Jornal do Brasil, March 25). Nobody…

One important point my colleague Kevin Carson has emphasized repeatedly is that the prevailing labor relations in our society are not just a natural outgrowth of voluntary exchanges in a free market. Instead, they have resulted from pervasive state intervention that constrains the options of workers, thus leaving them in a worse position to bargain…

America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited Authored by Sheldon Richman Foreword by Jeffrey A. Tucker This book challenges the assumption that the Constitution was a landmark in the struggle for liberty. Instead, Sheldon Richman argues, it was the product of a counter-revolution, a setback for the radicalism represented by America’s break with the British empire. Drawing…

The border that separates the United States and Mexico has been the cause of many controversies and constant violence. When a wall of separation is created to notify where a certain territory begins and ends, whether they oppose each other or not, there are bound to be complications. One group that is literally in the…

The presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders share a uniting theme of protecting American workers from foreign competition. Trump favors a 45% tariff on Chinese goods, while Sanders vocally opposes NAFTA-style trade agreements and the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) designation (which prevents the US from imposing tariffs, on Chinese goods which other countries would not…

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be…

C4SS Senior Fellow Nick Ford was recently interviewed by Hector Combo for the Political Scams podcast. A few of the topics discussed include the philosophy of individualism and the differences between anarcho-capitalism and anarcho-communism. As the conversation unfolds, Nick describes his “cynical optimism” on the current presidential election. According to Nick, the 2016 elections present…

Supervised injection sites (SIS) are not a new phenomenon. State-designated locations at which recreational intravenous drug users may legally shoot up, while under the supervision of medical professionals, have been prevalent throughout Europe for over two decades. The concept of SIS first garnered widespread public attention in the United States in 2003 when North America’s…

Josiah Warren, “A Brief Outline of Equitable Commerce,” The Boston Investigator, XXI, 50 (April 14, 1852), 3. Mr. Editor: — Believing that the suggestions contained in the following article will be of service to those persons who interest themselves in the subject of Social Reform, and whose desire is to find a method of securing…

Frank Chodorov (2/15/1887-12/28/1966) was a libertarian’s libertarian. Born in New York’s lower East Side and brought up on the lower West Side, his inspiration was his father, an immigrant peddler who worked hard and built a successful department store (his “mother operated a lunch room in the rear of the store”), the bequest to his…

In a recent open letter to the mayor (Julia Carrie Wong, “San Francisco tech worker: ‘I don’t want to see homeless riff-raff,’“ The Guardian, Feb. 17), entitled tech bro Justin Keller whined that the sight of homeless people ruins his enjoyment of the local atmosphere in San Francisco. And when his family comes to visit,…

Richard M. Ebeling discusses how Lithuania helped take down the USSR. Andrew Bacevich discusses U.S. foreign policy. Dan Sanchez discusses herd think. Lucy Steigerwald discusses diplomacy and hawks. Sheldon Richman discusses Iran and U.S. foreign policy. Dan Sanchez discusses the lottery and voting. Dan Sanchez discusses the use of expendable assets in American foreign policy….

Senator Bernie Sanders describes his campaign for president as a “political revolution.” His appeal comes from his unpolished outsider status, the challenge he presents to the political establishment, and his critique of an economy rigged in favor of well-connected corporate interests. Senator Sanders has in some instances admirably opposed corporate welfare. For example, for years…

At Reason, Nick Gillespie (“Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Eminent Domain, and the Keystone XL Pipeline,” Feb. 7) offers a welcome bit of thoughtful discussion of the Keystone XL pipeline project insofar as it involves the issue of eminent domain. To be sure Reason has published a few pieces in recent years that mentioned both eminent…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced today that the government will forbid the television news media from covering the conflict in the Middle East because “displays of U.S. military operations there have the potential to radicalize Americans against the Obama administration’s foreign policy and provoke terrorism in the United States.”…