Post by suzanimal on Sept 6, 2016 14:12:59 GMT -8
09/02/2016
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
III.
Complications in this fundamentally clear ethical landscape arise only from the presence of a State.
The state is conventionally defined as an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of ultimate decision-making in all cases of conflict, including conflicts involving itself and its agents. That is, the state can legislate, can unilaterally make and break law; and by implication, the state has the exclusive privilege to tax, i.e., to determine unilaterally the price its subjects must pay it to perform the task of ultimate decision-making.
Logically, the institution of a state has a twofold implication. First, with a state in existence all private property becomes essentially fiat property, i.e., property granted by the state and, by the same token, also property to be taken away by it via legislation or taxation. Ultimately, all private property becomes state property. Second, none of the state’s “own” land and property — misleadingly called public property — and none of its money income is derived from original appropriation, production, or voluntary exchange. Rather, all of the state’s property and income is the result of prior expropriations of owners of private property.
The state, then, contrary to its own self-serving pronouncements, is not the originator or guarantor of private property. Rather, it is the conqueror of private property. Nor is the state the originator or guarantor of justice. To the contrary, it is the destroyer of justice and the embodiment of injustice.
How is a capitalist-entrepreneur (or anyone, for that matter) to act justly in a fundamentally unjust, statist world, i.e., confronted and encircled by an ethically indefensible institution — the state — whose agents live off and sustain themselves not from production and exchange but from expropriations: from the taking, redistributing and regulating of the capitalist’s and others’ private property?
Since private property is just, every action in defense of one’s private property is just as well — provided only that in his defense the defender does not infringe on the private property rights of others. The capitalist is ethically entitled to use all means at his disposal to defend himself against any attack on and expropriation of his property by the state, exactly as he is entitled to do against any common criminal. On the other hand, and again exactly as in the case of any common criminal, the capitalist’s defensive actions are unjust, if they involve an attack on the property of any third party, i.e., as soon as the capitalist uses his means to play a participatory role in the state’s expropriations.
More specifically: For the capitalist (or anyone) in the defense and for the sake of his property, it may not be prudent or even dangerous to do so, but it is certainly just for him to avoid or evade any and all restrictions imposed on his property by the state as best he can. Thus, it is just for the capitalist to deceive and lie to state agents about his properties and income. It is just for him, to evade taxfpayments on his property and income, and to ignore or circumvent all legislative or regulatory restrictions imposed on the uses he may make of his factors of production (land, labor, and capital). Correspondingly, a capitalist also acts justly, if he bribes or otherwise lobbies state agents to help him ignore, remove or evade the taxes and regulations imposed on him. He acts justly and above that becomes a promoter of justice, if he uses his means to lobby or bribe state agents to reduce taxes and property regulations generally, not only for him. And he acts justly and becomes indeed a champion of justice, if he actively lobbies to outlaw, as unjust, any and all expropriation, and hence all property and income taxes and all legislative restrictions on the use of property (beyond the requirement of not causing physical damage to others’ property during production).
As well, it is just for the capitalist to buy state property at the lowest possible price — provided only that the property in question cannot be traced back to the expropriation of some specific third party that still retains title to it. And likewise is it just for the capitalist to sell his products to the state at the highest possible price — provided only that this product cannot be linked directly and causally to a future act of state aggression against some particular third party (as may be the case with certain weapons sales).
On the other hand, apart from any violation of the just mentioned two provisos, a capitalist acts unjustly and becomes a promoter of injustice, if and to the extent he employs his means for the purpose of maintaining or further increasing any current level of confiscation or legislative expropriation of others’ property or income by the state.
Thus, for instance, the purchase of state-government bonds and the monetary profit derived from it is unjust, because such purchase represents a lobbying effort on behalf of the continuation of the state and of ongoing injustice, as interest payments and final repayment of the bond require future taxes. Likewise and more importantly, any means expended by a capitalist on lobbying efforts to maintain or increase the current level of taxes — and hence of state-income and spending — or of regulatory property restrictions, are unjust, and any profits derived from such efforts are corrupted.
Confronted with an unjust institution, the temptation for a capitalist to act unjustly as well is systematically increased. If he becomes an accomplice in the state’s business of taxing, redistributing and legislating, new profit opportunities open up. Corruption becomes attractive, because it can offer great financial rewards.
By expending money and other means on political parties, politicians, or other state agents, a capitalist may lobby the state to subsidize his losing enterprise, or to rescue it from insolvency or bankruptcy — and so enrich or save himself at the expense of others. Through lobbying activities and expenses, a capitalist may be granted a legal privilege or monopoly concerning the production, the sale, or the purchase of certain products or services — and so gain monopoly profits at the expense of other money-profit seeking capitalists. Or he may get the state to pass legislation that raises his competitors’ production costs relative to his own — and so grants him a competitive advantage at others’ expense.
Yet however tempting, all such lobbying activities and resulting profits are unjust. They all involve that a capitalist pays state agents for the expropriation of other, third parties, in the expectation of higher personal profit. The capitalist does not employ his means of production exclusively for the production of goods, to be sold to voluntarily paying consumers. Rather, the capitalist employs a portion of his means for the production of bads: the involuntary expropriation of others. And accordingly, the profit earned from his enterprise, whatever it may be, is no longer a correct measure of the size of his contribution to social welfare. His profits are corrupted and morally tainted. Some third parties would have a just claim against his enterprise and his profit — a claim that may not be enforceable against the state, but that would be a just claim nonetheless.
Complications in this fundamentally clear ethical landscape arise only from the presence of a State.
The state is conventionally defined as an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of ultimate decision-making in all cases of conflict, including conflicts involving itself and its agents. That is, the state can legislate, can unilaterally make and break law; and by implication, the state has the exclusive privilege to tax, i.e., to determine unilaterally the price its subjects must pay it to perform the task of ultimate decision-making.
Logically, the institution of a state has a twofold implication. First, with a state in existence all private property becomes essentially fiat property, i.e., property granted by the state and, by the same token, also property to be taken away by it via legislation or taxation. Ultimately, all private property becomes state property. Second, none of the state’s “own” land and property — misleadingly called public property — and none of its money income is derived from original appropriation, production, or voluntary exchange. Rather, all of the state’s property and income is the result of prior expropriations of owners of private property.
The state, then, contrary to its own self-serving pronouncements, is not the originator or guarantor of private property. Rather, it is the conqueror of private property. Nor is the state the originator or guarantor of justice. To the contrary, it is the destroyer of justice and the embodiment of injustice.
How is a capitalist-entrepreneur (or anyone, for that matter) to act justly in a fundamentally unjust, statist world, i.e., confronted and encircled by an ethically indefensible institution — the state — whose agents live off and sustain themselves not from production and exchange but from expropriations: from the taking, redistributing and regulating of the capitalist’s and others’ private property?
Since private property is just, every action in defense of one’s private property is just as well — provided only that in his defense the defender does not infringe on the private property rights of others. The capitalist is ethically entitled to use all means at his disposal to defend himself against any attack on and expropriation of his property by the state, exactly as he is entitled to do against any common criminal. On the other hand, and again exactly as in the case of any common criminal, the capitalist’s defensive actions are unjust, if they involve an attack on the property of any third party, i.e., as soon as the capitalist uses his means to play a participatory role in the state’s expropriations.
More specifically: For the capitalist (or anyone) in the defense and for the sake of his property, it may not be prudent or even dangerous to do so, but it is certainly just for him to avoid or evade any and all restrictions imposed on his property by the state as best he can. Thus, it is just for the capitalist to deceive and lie to state agents about his properties and income. It is just for him, to evade taxfpayments on his property and income, and to ignore or circumvent all legislative or regulatory restrictions imposed on the uses he may make of his factors of production (land, labor, and capital). Correspondingly, a capitalist also acts justly, if he bribes or otherwise lobbies state agents to help him ignore, remove or evade the taxes and regulations imposed on him. He acts justly and above that becomes a promoter of justice, if he uses his means to lobby or bribe state agents to reduce taxes and property regulations generally, not only for him. And he acts justly and becomes indeed a champion of justice, if he actively lobbies to outlaw, as unjust, any and all expropriation, and hence all property and income taxes and all legislative restrictions on the use of property (beyond the requirement of not causing physical damage to others’ property during production).
As well, it is just for the capitalist to buy state property at the lowest possible price — provided only that the property in question cannot be traced back to the expropriation of some specific third party that still retains title to it. And likewise is it just for the capitalist to sell his products to the state at the highest possible price — provided only that this product cannot be linked directly and causally to a future act of state aggression against some particular third party (as may be the case with certain weapons sales).
On the other hand, apart from any violation of the just mentioned two provisos, a capitalist acts unjustly and becomes a promoter of injustice, if and to the extent he employs his means for the purpose of maintaining or further increasing any current level of confiscation or legislative expropriation of others’ property or income by the state.
Thus, for instance, the purchase of state-government bonds and the monetary profit derived from it is unjust, because such purchase represents a lobbying effort on behalf of the continuation of the state and of ongoing injustice, as interest payments and final repayment of the bond require future taxes. Likewise and more importantly, any means expended by a capitalist on lobbying efforts to maintain or increase the current level of taxes — and hence of state-income and spending — or of regulatory property restrictions, are unjust, and any profits derived from such efforts are corrupted.
Confronted with an unjust institution, the temptation for a capitalist to act unjustly as well is systematically increased. If he becomes an accomplice in the state’s business of taxing, redistributing and legislating, new profit opportunities open up. Corruption becomes attractive, because it can offer great financial rewards.
By expending money and other means on political parties, politicians, or other state agents, a capitalist may lobby the state to subsidize his losing enterprise, or to rescue it from insolvency or bankruptcy — and so enrich or save himself at the expense of others. Through lobbying activities and expenses, a capitalist may be granted a legal privilege or monopoly concerning the production, the sale, or the purchase of certain products or services — and so gain monopoly profits at the expense of other money-profit seeking capitalists. Or he may get the state to pass legislation that raises his competitors’ production costs relative to his own — and so grants him a competitive advantage at others’ expense.
Yet however tempting, all such lobbying activities and resulting profits are unjust. They all involve that a capitalist pays state agents for the expropriation of other, third parties, in the expectation of higher personal profit. The capitalist does not employ his means of production exclusively for the production of goods, to be sold to voluntarily paying consumers. Rather, the capitalist employs a portion of his means for the production of bads: the involuntary expropriation of others. And accordingly, the profit earned from his enterprise, whatever it may be, is no longer a correct measure of the size of his contribution to social welfare. His profits are corrupted and morally tainted. Some third parties would have a just claim against his enterprise and his profit — a claim that may not be enforceable against the state, but that would be a just claim nonetheless.
mises.org/blog/ethics-entrepreneurship-and-profit