The Economics and Ethics of Private Property : Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy

The collapse of socialism across Eastern Europe - as manifested most dramatically by the events of the forever memorable November 9, 1989, when the Germans of East and West reunited, moved and overjoyed, on top of the Berlin Wall - has added more support and urgency to the central thesis of this volume than I had ever hoped for. Whether the following studies deal with economic topics, such as employment, interest, money, banking, business cycles, taxes, public goods, or growth; with philosophical problems as the foundations of know ledge, and of economics and ethics in particular; or the reconstruction and theoretical explanation of historical and sociological phenomena such as exploitation, the rise and fall of civilizations, international politics, war, imperialism, and the role of ideas and ideological movements in the course of social evolution - each ultimately contributes to but one conclusion: The right to private property is an indisputably valid, absolute principle of ethics and the basis for continuous 'optimal' economic progress. To rise from the ruins of socialism and overcome the stagnation of the Western welfare states, nothing will suffice but the uncompromizing privatization of all socialized, that is, government, property and the establishment of a contractual society based on the recognition of the absoluteness of private property rights. \*\*\* In writing the following studies I received help from many sides. Special thanks go to my wife Margaret, who again took on the task of de­ Germanizing my English; to Llewellyn H. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Fallacies of the Public Goods Theory and the Production of Security....Pages 3-26 The Economics and Sociology of Taxation....Pages 27-60 Banking, Nation States and International Politics. A Sociological Reconstruction of the Present Economic Order....Pages 61-92 Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis....Pages 93-110 Theory of Employment, Money, Interest, and the Capitalist process. the misesian Case Against Keynes....Pages 111-138 Front Matter....Pages 139-139 On Praxeology and the Praxeological Foundation of Epistemology....Pages 141-164 Is Research Based on Causal Scientific Principles Possible in the Social Sciences?....Pages 165-172 From the Economics of Laissez Faire to the Ethics of Libertarianism....Pages 173-193 The Justice of Economic Efficiency....Pages 195-201 On the Ultimate Justification of the Ethics of Private Property....Pages 203-208 Austrian Rationalism in the Age of the Decline of Positivism....Pages 209-235 Back Matter....Pages 237-265 This book considers in depth the basic economic and philosophical issues surrounding the concept of private property. The author adheres to the Austrian school of economic thought in pursuing this analysis and comes to the conclusion that the right to private property is a principle of ethics and the `basis for continual `optimal' economic progress' Considers the economic and philosophical issues surrounding the concept of private property. The book adheres to the Austrian school of economic thought and comes to the conclusion that the right to private property is a principle of ethics and the basis for continual "optimal" economic progress.