The most interesting part of this video is early on when Peter discusses the banking regulation as the president of a small investment firm. Later on, he talks about his surprisingly hawkish stance, despite wide recognition as a libertarian candidate. (His candidacy is Connecticut would be impossible otherwise.)
Daily Archives: 13 July 2010
Murray Rothbard on Capital Punishment
Libertarians differ widely on the issue of capital punishment. Murray Rothbard offers his perspective here. Discussion here.
The gist of it putting punishment decisions in the hands of the victim or the victim’s representative. I like it, though one problem is the possibility of intimidation by the criminal or his allies.
One of the comments in the discussion reflect some work currently being done to image a world with restitution, but no punishment:
Rarely do I disagree with Rothbard, and this is one of those disagreements. While I do agree with Restitutional Justice, I don’t agree with the notion that an aggressor surrenders his rights when he violates the rights of others. Haven’t we all agreed to this point that these are Natural Rights, rights which are ironclad and irremovable without the consent of the person in question? From what Rothbard had argued, it all seems periously close to Vengeance than Justice, which has more to do with consoling the victim than undoing the harm that has been done.
It is possible for a murderer to be punished without violating his natural rights. Simply being marked as a murderer in the first place in public means he will likely be economically exiled, if not completely exiled. In the theoretical world of anarchistic Libertarianism, such people would have a tough time affording insurances of any sort; their life would likely become short and painful. The good news is that in such a world there are plenty of avenues to regain trust, even for crimes as monstrous as murder, although they would always be tough. In prison, or in this case capital punishment, there is no avenue to productively regain the trust of the local community.
Sure capital punishment can deter future crimes but with human beings as imperfect as they are, I don’t think its wise to let them take away lives not rightfully belonging to them. Innocents could always be caught in the crossfire, as too often they have.