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Title: Economics of Liberty Source: Retrieved 10/25/2021 from http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/labadie/LabadieEssays.pdf Notes: <em>Economics of Liberty</em> and <em>Reflections on Socio-economic</em> <em>Evolution</em> were hand-composed and first published on a single sheet of paper resembling newsprint cut to twice standard (5½x8½ in.) book size, utilizing only the inside, thus blank both front and back when folded in half, Laurance signed both these essays, but they are not dated. When asked as to the approximate date they were done, he could not remember, but thought he may have done them in the mid-1940s, or earlier. Reprinted in <em>Laurance LaBadie: Selected Essays</em> (Libertarian Broadsides), James J. Martin, ed., Ralph Myles Publisher, Inc., 1978. Authors: Laurance Labadie Topics: individualism, economics, libertarian Published: 2021-10-29 05:43:10Z
The following purports to be a clear and concise outline of libertarian economic theory. Liberty means to be free from as well as free to do. To be free means to be independent—not forced interdependence. Independence implies exclusion, hence a libertarian economy will involve property rights. Free exchange may he made by barter, with money, or through credit. A free economy, then, due to the inconveniences of barter, will almost necessarily be a money economy, undoubtedly a credit-money economy.
1. Theorem: If every individual, either alone or voluntarily organized into a group, has an opportunity to produce what he wishes and how he wishes, and to trade when, where, and on whatever terms he chooses, products and services will exchange virtually in proportion to the arduousness required in their production.
2. Proof: For as water seeks its level, competition compels one to charge for his services and products no more than what others are willing to do it for. Men gravitate to those activities giving the greatest return, and competition is normally most keen in the more remunerative industries, thus always tending toward equilibrium and equality which, as soon as they are approached, causes competition to become less intense or at least balanced among all productive influences.
3. The price system means that one must pay for what he receives. Operating under free competition, the price system (free enterprise and free market)—
4. Obstacles to production and exchange ave of two kinds: natural, and law created or artificial.
5. To understand the nature of human exploitation (as practiced to-day) one should know that remuneration for removing the obstacles to production is equivalent to the “value” or social estimate of the importance of such service.
6. Economic liberty demands the removal or disregarding of the privileges causing artificial hindrances to production and exchange. This means revolutionizing our concepts of what property should consist.
7. Given economic liberty: