Walter Block gave an excellent lecture titled. Legalize Consenting Capitalist Acts. I found the mp3 link here. The direct mp3 link is here. I strongly recommend you give it a listen, either in your car, your home, or office. He addresses “social problems” and economic problems. Walter gives you plenty of arrows for your quiver to defend yourself and our libertarian principles.

He favors the legalization of consenting adult behavior. For example, the current drug war costs us financially and socially. Libertarians want to legalize it. Anyone who knows someone who has abused drugs knows that sending them to jail for their acts will not make things better. People go to jail to learn how to steal, rape, and plunder better. It is far better to send drug addicts to rehab, thats why TV shows like Intervention exists. Its better for society (fewer drug addicts), cheaper (rehab is cheaper than jail). To paraphrase Walter,

We as libertarians do not condone these acts, but recognize that making these acts illegal is worse for society the the other options.

I, as a parent, do not want my kids to do drugs. I don’t want them to waste their time, health, and money on drugs. However, if despite my efforts, my kids do become addicts, I don’t want them to go to jail. I want to send them to rehab to bring them back to society as a productive member. Jail can’t and/or won’t do that.

This distinction above is very important. Walter states, that approximately 60% of prison residents are in prison for drug related “crimes”, i.e. drug posession, stealing to pay for their habit, etc. By legalizing drugs, the cost to deal drugs is significantly lower. This allows users to use without stealing because heroin is no longer $100 per high. Additionally, we as citizens can use that previous tax money to send our drug addicts to rehab.

I do have several additions to his talk. He mentions why women make, on average (statistics lie!), less than men. He mentions the traditional approach to home making often lands squarely at the feet of women. As you may know, if a couple wants to have a baby, that the woman typically gives birth to that baby. That woman will take time off to recover from that birth, 3-12 months, if not years. This period of time out of the workplace would cause both a man and a woman to lag in their field, both in regards to qualifications and therefore compensation. Thomas Sowell did a study comparing women who have not taken any time off to birth babies to men. On average, women made just as much as men, if not slightly higher. So, when comparing apples to apples, they are the same. However, if you include these women who took significant breaks in their career to birth and raise children, they experience lower wages, as expected.

Walter’s talk is excellent. Let me know what you think.