Walter Block

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Walter Block
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Walter Edward Block (born August 21, 1941) is an American

Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.[2]

Personal life

Walter Block was born in

rent control in the United States under Gary Becker.[5] Block identifies himself as a "devout atheist".[6]

In an interview, Block stated, "In the fifties and sixties, I was just another commie living in

better source needed
]

Professional career

Walter Block

Walter Block received a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College in 1964 and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1972. He taught at the University of Central Arkansas, Holy Cross College, Baruch College and Rutgers University. He now holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the Butt College of Business, Loyola University, in New Orleans.[9]

From 1979 to 1991, Block was the senior economist with the

Ludwig von Mises Institute, which has published various blog posts of his since 2000.[9][10]

In the years since 1971, his work has been published in the

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, the Journal of Labor Economics and Public Choice[11][12] and in Psychology Today and other popular media.[13] In 2017, he hit the milestone of publishing over 500 peer-reviewed articles.[14]

Defending the Undefendable

Further information: Defending the Undefendable

Walter Block has written two dozen books.

Fox Business Channel pundit John Stossel wrote that Block's "eye-opening" book inspired him to see that economics "illuminates what common sense overlooks."[18]

Viewpoints

Slavery and segregation

"Voluntary slave contract"

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Block believes that people should have the legal right to sell themselves into slavery, or to buy and keep slaves who have sold themselves into slavery, in a libertarian legal order.[citation needed]

In an essay on "inalienability" of

natural and legal rights, Block defends what he calls a "voluntary slave contract", arguing that it is "a bona fide contract where consideration crosses hands; when it is abrogated, theft occurs". He notes that Robert Nozick agrees with him, and critiques the views of the libertarians who disagree. Block seeks to make "a tiny adjustment" which "strengthens libertarianism by making it more internally consistent." He argues that his position shows "that contract, predicated on private property [can] reach to the furthest realms of human interaction, even to voluntary slave contracts."[19]

Slavery and civil rights in the United States

A January 2014 article in the New York Times said Block "suggested in an interview that the daily life of the enslaved was 'not so bad – you pick cotton and sing songs.'"

Inside Higher Education piece noted that, in response to the story, seventeen faculty members at Block's university publicly called for him to be censured for his "recurring public attacks ... on the civil rights of all." The piece also reported that Reverend Kevin Wildes, the President of Block's university, took the "unusual step" of publicly critiquing his arguments as fallacious.[22]

Pay gap for black people and women

In a 2008 lecture Block called "Injustices in the Politics and Economics of Social Justice" presented at the invitation of the

Loyola College, Baltimore Block said "blacks and women" were paid less than whites because they are "less productive".[23]

In the lecture, Block defended his views on women saying among younger and unmarried women, there is virtually no income disparity. When asked by an attendee to explain the difference in productivity between blacks and whites, he said that as an economist he was not qualified to explain the disparity. Block offered two thoughts that might account for the disparity: first, what he called the "politically correct" explanation, or socioeconomic disparities and historical injustices towards blacks; for the second thought, which he calls the "political incorrect", he refers to R. Herrnstein and C. Murray's book "The Bell Curve".[23]

Times-Picayune that the lecture "ignited a furor", resulting in the president of the university, Reverend Brian F. Linnane, apologizing for what was taken as a "sexist and racist outburst", with Gill opining that, "ideas contrary to fashionable preconceptions are always likely to throw academia into a fit".[24]

According to Inside Higher Ed:

Perhaps almost as notable as the president's direct response was the condemnation issued jointly by the college's economics department and the Adam Smith Society ... "It is important to note that the remark was offensive not just because it was racially insensitive, but because it was erroneous and indicated poor-quality scholarship. There is ample scholarly evidence that, after adjusting for productivity-related characteristics (e.g., years of schooling, work experience, union and industry status, etc.) a considerable wage gap remains."[23]

Despite the criticism showing evidence questioning the veracity of his statements, Block said he "regards sensitivity as the enemy of intellectual inquiry and truth."[24][25] In a December 2008 article, Block wrote that the lessons he had learned from the incident were regarding the need for tenure if one wants to speak out, the wisdom of Murray Rothbard's words that "it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects" while remaining ignorant of economics, and the importance of Ludwig von Mises' motto: "Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it."[26]

Sexual assault

Block asserts that sexual harassment "that takes place between secretary and her boss is not a coercive action like the pinching that takes place in the public sphere." He claims this is the case since the secretary "agrees to all aspects of the job when she agrees to accept the job and especially when she agrees to keep the job". He calls this a "package-deal". He further differentiates this from acts taking place in public areas as they are not privately owned and therefore there can be no agreement to what he calls the "package-deal", and since the pincher isn't the private owner. He argues that "if pinching and sexual molestation are outlawed in private places, this violates the rights of those who voluntarily wish to engage in such practice." Block argues that the proof of the "voluntary" nature of such an act in a private place is that "the person endangered" (the victim woman) "has no claim [right] whatsoever to the private place in question [...] If she continues to patronize or work at a place where she is molested, it can only be voluntary"[27]

Highway privatization

Further information:
Highway privatization and Free-market roads

Block says government management of roads and highways is not only inefficient, but also deadly. He argues that "road socialism" causes the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the United States each year. And, although many people blame highway deaths on alcohol, unsafe vehicles, or speeding, Block lays the blame on the government officials who manage the highway system. "It may well be that speed and alcohol are deleterious to safe driving; but it is the road manager's task to ascertain that the proper standards are maintained with regard to these aspects of safety. If unsafe conditions prevail in a private, multistory parking lot, or in a shopping mall, or in the aisles of a department store, the entrepreneur in question is held accountable."[28]

Punishment of government employees

Block has written about

Nuremberg Trials" might operate.[29][30]

Evictionism (in contrast to abortion)

Further information: Evictionism, Libertarian perspectives on abortion, and Stem cell controversy

According to Block's moral theory, the act of abortion must be conceptually separated into the acts of the eviction of the fetus from the womb, and the killing of the fetus. Building on the libertarian stand against trespass and murder, Block supports a right to the first act, but, except in certain circumstances, not the second act. Block believes the woman may legally abort if the fetus is not viable outside the womb, or the woman has announced to the world her abandonment of the right to custody of the fetus, and no one else has "homesteaded" that right by offering to care for the fetus.[31]

He also has written on finding a compromise between those who believe stem cell research is murder and those who favor it. He applies a libertarian theory of private property rights to his premise that even fertilized eggs have human rights and that the relevant issues are competition between researchers and those who wish to adopt the eggs.[32]

Homesteading

Blockean Proviso

Block argues that if property is "necessary" for others to use, to get to unowned property, they have a easement over it and compared it to a person who murders a child without feeding it.[33] He cites the example of a person with donut shaped land who doesn't allow anyone to get to the middle of his land as incompatible with the logic of homesteading.[34]

Picture a bagel (or donut) with a hole in it. Label the hole in the center as 'A,' the bagel itself as 'B' and the surrounding territory, lying outside of the bagel, as 'C.' Suppose that someone, call him Mr. B, homesteads the land depicted by B. Assume away any possibility of tunneling under, or bridging or flying a helicopter over this terrain, B. Mr. B, then, controls area A, without ever having lifted a finger in the direction of homesteading this land, A. Yes, as of now, Mr. B does not own A. But, under our assumptions, he can homestead this territory whenever he wants to do so. Mr. B and [sic] gained an untoward advantage, vis-à-vis all other potential homesteaders of A, who are now residing in territory C, and cannot reach A, without trespassing on B, Mr. B's property. This, I claim, is incompatible with the logic of homesteading.

The Lockean Proviso. It has since been called the Blockean or Blockian proviso.[35]

Negative homesteading

Block has theorized on whether a person acting in self-defense can harm a human shield or hostage used by an aggressor. Block holds this is legitimate because the human shield is the first victim of the aggressor and, as such, cannot be allowed to pass on their misery to the defending person, the intended second victim of the aggressor. Block calls this "negative homesteading theory".[36][37]

Foreign policy

Block supports a

Wall Street Journal editorial on presidential candidate Ron Paul and on foreign policy.[39]

Animal rights

Block believes that the libertarian non-aggression principle does not apply to animals and that the right of human owners to kill, torture, or otherwise abuse animals may be an unavoidable corollary of libertarian premises. He articulated this position in a 2017 debate on animal rights, maintaining that groups must be able to petition for rights and respect the rights of others in order to qualify for rights themselves.

better source needed
]

Publications

As author

As editor

Notes

  1. ^ "About Walter Block". Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  2. ^ "Mises Institute Faculty Listing". Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Walter Block. "On Autobiography." LewRockwell.com. December 4, 2002. [1] Archived June 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Chana, Jas (August 20, 2015). "Straight Outta Brooklyn, by Way of Vermont: The Bernie Sanders Story". The Tablet. Archived from the original on February 12, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016. At James Madison, Bernie Sanders was a talented athlete and a natural leader. Block recalled how the high school's freshmen would look up to him during their senior year track sessions.
  5. ^ a b Walter Block curriculum vitae Archived August 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine on Walterblock.com, p. 2.
  6. ^ Block, Walter. "Open Letter to Ron Paul by Walter Block." LewRockwell.com. December 28, 2007. [2]
  7. ^ "Radical Economics: An Interview with Walter Block." Austrian Economics Newsletter. Summer 1999. [3] Archived September 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ VoluntaryVirtues0com. "Walter Block on Triple V Roads, Ron Paul, Property Rights, Abortion, Venus Project, FSP, more" Archived March 14, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. YouTube. July 5, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d Walter Block faculty page Archived November 23, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Loyola University New Orleans, accessed July 31, 2013.
  10. Ludwig von Mises Institute
    website.
  11. ^ Walter Block curriculum vitae Archived August 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine sections on Articles Published in Refereed Journals and Reference Works.
  12. ^ Public Choice Archived January 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, publication of Springer Science+Business Media.
  13. ^ Block, Walter. "Psychology Today Blog Index". Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  14. ^ TomWoodsTV. "Major Milestone: Libertarian Walter Block Looks Back on 500 Peer-Reviewed Articles" Archived September 26, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. YouTube. January 12, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  15. ^ Walter Block curriculum vitae Archived August 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine on Walterblock.com, p. 1.
  16. ISSN 1536-7150. Archived
    from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021. Walter Block's amusing and popular Defending the Undefendable offers an intentionally shocking collection of short chapters, each praising a different "rogue" of modern society
  17. ^ Carden, Art. "Happy Birthday to Libertarian Firebrand Walter Block". independent.org. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021. As befits someone who is probably best known for a book titled Defending the Undefendable, Block is no stranger to controversy.
  18. ^ John Stossel, Almost Everything We're Taught Is Wrong, Using economics to explode fallacies Archived July 2, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Reason, August 25, 2011.
  19. Journal of Libertarian Studies
    , vol. 17, no. 2, Spring 2003, pp. 44, 46, 82
  20. ^ Tanenhaus, Sam and Ruttenberg, Jim (January 25, 2014). "Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance". The New York Times Archived February 16, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Block, Walter (January 30, 2014). "Reply to the Scurrilous, Libelous, Venomous, Scandalous New York Times Smear Campaign." Archived July 3, 2020, at the Wayback Machine LewRockwell.cm
  22. ^ Jaschik, Scott (February 24, 2014). "Professor Who Defends Segregation." Archived April 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Inside Higher Education
  23. ^
    Inside Higher Education
  24. ^
    Times-Picayune
  25. LewRockwell.com
  26. LewRockwell.com
    , December 16, 2008
  27. ^ Walter Block, "On The Women's Liberation, or the Male Chauvinist Pig as Hero." The Libertarian Forum, vol. 8, no. 9, September 1975. The Complete Libertarian Forum (1969–1984) Volume 1: 1969–1975 Archived October 9, 2022, at Ghost Archive, p. 602
  28. ^ Block, Walter. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors Archived December 16, 2014, at the Wayback Machine; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute, 2009
  29. ^ Walter Block, "Toward a Libertarian Theory of Guilt and Punishment for the Crime of Statism" Archived September 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 22, (2011): 665–665.
  30. ^ Walter Block, "Libertarian Punishment Theory: Working for, and Donating to, the State" Archived September 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Libertarian Papers 1, no. 17 (2009): 1–31.
  31. ^ Walter Block, Compromising the Uncompromisable: A Private Property Approach to Resolving the Abortion Controversy Archived October 16, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Walter Block personal web site Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, originally published in Appalachian Journal of Law, Vol. 4:1.
    Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski, "A Critique of Block on Abortion and Child Abandonment" Archived October 16, 2022, at the
    Ludwig Von Mises Institute
    , Vol. 2, Art. No. 16 (2010)
  32. ^ Walter Block, A Libertarian Perspective on the Stem Cell Debate: Compromising the Uncompromisible, Archived April 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Vol. 35, 2010, pp. 429–448
    Walter Block, Objections to the Libertarian Stem Cell Compromise Archived March 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Libertarian Papers Vol. 2, Art. No. 34, 2010
  33. ^ Stephan Kinsella (September 11, 2007). "The Blockean Proviso". Mises Wire. Archived from the original on March 14, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  34. ^ Lukasz Dominiak (2017). "The Blockian Proviso and Rationality of Property Rights" (PDF). Libertarian Papers.
  35. ^ Walter E. Block; Joseph A. Butt (2016). "Forestalling, Positive Obligations and the Lockean and Blockean Provisos: Rejoinder to Stephan Kinsella*" (PDF). Ekonomia. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 7, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  36. ^ Jakobsson, Carl. 2010. The Negative Homesteading Theory: Rejoinder to Walter Block on Human Body Shields Archived September 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Libertarian Studies. Vol. 22 Num. 1
  37. ^ Walter Block, The Human Body Shield Archived September 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 22 (2011): 625–630.
  38. ^ "Toward a Libertarian Society". June 6, 2014. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  39. ^ "Libertarianism vs. War". LewRockwell. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  40. ^ Lucy Steigerwald (August 21, 2017), Animal Rights?: A Debate Between Walter Block and Thomas Raskin, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved January 14, 2018

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