A Response to Something Libertarians Must Admit
If I owe my being a classical liberal or libertarian to any thinker, it is definitely the economist Milton Friedman. I accidentally stumbled on a YouTube video of him a couple of years ago and both his charisma and easy to understand concept of the correlation between capitalism and freedom convinced me that a free society required free markets.
Even though Milton Friedman introduced me to pro-liberty philosophy there are a number of thinkers that have helped me develop my ideas; thinkers such as John Locke, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Adam Smith. But it is hard to deny that Murray Rothbard has not influenced and helped me develop certain pro-liberty ideas and beliefs. This is why …show more content…
“Rothbard Was Probably a Little Racist”
Regardless of whether Murray Rothbard was racist or not, he hated the concept of slavery, due to his beliefs in Natural Rights and Natural Law (this is found throughout The Ethics of Liberty). In the Ethics of Liberty, he is highly critical of colonialism, regardless of the consequences. (While Milton Friedman seemed to justify the colonialization of India, now that there was more economic development prior to its independence).
4. Rothbard Made Libertarians Total Losers
Rothbard’s inability to compromise his beliefs and ideology should be seen as admirable and not as something to look down on. Compromising for the sake of politics has been the death and corruption of liberalism in the last two hundred years. Exceptions were made for the sake of politics, moving liberalism from its classical origins to the current statist and social liberal tradition found across Europe and Latin America.
Conclusion:
“Murray Rothbard wasn’t a libertarian and did nothing to benefit the growth of libertarianism.” is a statement made out of ignorance. Any individual that has picked up any of Murray Rothbard’s works will notice and be able to accept that he is one of the few or the only pro-liberty individual to help develop a libertarian political philosophy that is as consistent and well developed as