Following on from our earlier theme about the state being nothing more than an over-sized protection racket, in case you missed it you must read Robert Higgs's much more refined Schlarbaum Award Acceptance Speech about the same topic. It's one of those pieces that you wish you had the ability to write yourself, and in the face of which you stand in awe for its clarity and its ability to cut through to the central realities. For instance, here's the tiniest snippet: "The state's most fundamental purpose, the activity without which it cannot even exist, is robbery. The state gains its very sustenance from robbery, which it pretties up ideologically by giving it a different name (taxation) and by striving to sanctify its intrinsic crime as permissible and socially necessary."Bravo, Sir; it truly is a magnificent piece of writing.
UPDATE: And here is the MP3.
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