Ancaps often declare, "All rights are property rights." I was thinking about this the other day, in the context of running into libertarians online who insisted that libertarianism supports "the freedom of movement," and realized that this principle actually entails that people without property have no rights at all, let alone any right to "freedom of movement." Of course, immediately, any ancap readers still left here are going to say, "Wait a second! Everyone owns his own body! And so everyone at least has the right to not have his body interfered with." Well, that is true... except that in ancapistan, one has no right to any place to put that body, except if one owns property, or has the permission of at least one property owner to place that body on her land. So, if one is landless and penniless, one had sure better hope that there are kindly disposed property owners aligned in a corridor from wherever one happens to be to wherever the...
This is just an educated guess, with an emphasis on "guess," but maybe Keynes was just being nice. He did read, and positively review, several books in German. It's true that some of Mises' ideas were unique and complicated, but I feel that Keynes understood enough of it and didn't find it convincing.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jonathan, I think you are correct. Others have documented Keynes's extensive knowledge of German.
DeleteNevertheless, the phenomenon he notes is real.
Just admit it Gene: Your linguistic abilities are most suited to a totalitarian society.
ReplyDelete