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Richman, Liebowitz & Immigration

TGIF: Immigration vs. Settler Colonialism

The people performing those mind-boggling contortions to justify, on libertarian grounds, state violence against migrants without papers—restrictatarians, I call them—cite a 1994 article by Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) in support of their double-jointed acrobatics. Rothbard was correct about many things, but a position is not correct merely because Rothbard held it. I expect no disagreement over that.

As a general matter, Rothbard's importance to the shaping of the modern libertarian movement needs no documentation. He was accomplished in economics, social theory, and history. In his time, he was known as Mr. Libertarian, the guardian of the plumb line. (He was also my friend and, informally, my teacher.) His words carry much weight for people who love liberty. It's therefore appropriate to show why, in this case, in 1994, Rothbard was stunningly wrong about immigration, or the freedom to move.

TGIF: Damn Those Innovators!

The problem of survival is never "solved," once and for all, with no further thought or motion required. More precisely, the problem of survival is solved, by recognizing that survival demands constant growth and creativeness....

Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress. It creates the optimum social conditions for man to respond to the challenges of nature in such a way as to best further his life. It operates to the benefit of all those who choose to be active in the production process, whatever their level of ability. But it is not geared to the demands of stagnation. Neither is reality.

—Nathaniel Branden, "The Divine Right of Stagnation"

Our lives are improved in all sorts of ways by courageous, risk-bearing entrepreneurs, who seek to change the world at a profit. For that reason alone, we should jealously safeguard an environment friendly to entrepreneurship. As the economic historian Deirdre McCloskey has shown through indefatigable research, when society is marred by envy of the richer and highly successful, we all suffer. Widespread prosperity soars, McCloskey demonstrates, when a culture in effect erects huge neon signs brightly flashing the message, "You think you have a great idea? Well, give it a go!"

That is not how people have felt through most of history. Envy that bred a fear of pioneers smothered innovation. Thomas Sowell has documented the horrors, including massacres, inflicted on "middleman minorities," such as Jews in Europe, Chinese in Southeast Asia, and Indians and Lebanese in Africa. The economically illiterate masses could not understand why middlemen got rich "doing nothing," never asking themselves why they nevertheless availed themselves of those allegedly unproductive services. That the relatively rich middlemen were usually different ethnically from the majority population made persecuting them with a clear conscience all the easier.

The point is that our lives, health, and comfort depend on innovators and entrepreneurs, and that they need freedom and security of life and property if they are to render their services. I don't think people fully understand that, even today.

Capitalism Can't Be Everything Its Foes Say It Is

"Nothing is more unpopular today than the free market economy, i.e., capitalism. Everything that is considered unsatisfactory in present-day conditions is charged to capitalism. The atheists make capitalism responsible for the survival of Christianity. But the papal encyclicals blame capitalism for the spread of irreligion and the sins of our contemporaries, and the Protestant churches and sects are no less vigorous in their indictment of capitalist greed. Friends of peace consider our wars as an offshoot of capitalist imperialism. But the adamant nationalist warmongers of Germany and Italy indicted capitalism for its “bourgeois” pacifism, contrary to human nature and to the inescapable laws of history. Sermonizers accuse capitalism of disrupting the family and fostering licentiousness. But the “progressives” blame capitalism for the preservation of allegedly outdated rules of sexual restraint. Almost all men agree that poverty is an outcome of capitalism. On the other hand many deplore the fact that capitalism, in catering lavishly to the wishes of people intent upon getting more amenities and a better living, promotes a crass materialism. These contradictory accusations of capitalism cancel one another. But the fact remains that there are few people left who would not condemn capitalism altogether."

—Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos, 1947

TGIF: The Right to Move

If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people's rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn't much matter. The default position is that each individual may rightfully move to somewhere else permanently or temporarily.

Inside the United States, nobody questions this. People freely move from state to state, etc., sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. They need no one's permission.

Why should things be different when we talk about countries rather than smaller jurisdictions and when the individuals who do the moving are not recognized as citizens of the destination country? An opponent of the freedom to move might begin by rejecting self-ownership and nonaggression, so the argument with him would take place at that basic level. But what if the opponent of the freedom to move espouses support for self-ownership and nonaggression? That's a different kettle of fish.

Recent Writing in Defense of Free Immigration

"The Trumpian Ice Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism"

"Immigration Policy in an Nth-Best World"

"Free Movement Increases Wealth"

"Static Analysis Clouds Immigration Debate"

"More on Immigration and Public Property"

"Immigration Control Threatens the Rule of Law"

"Immigration and Free Association"

"Reverse Scapegoating in the Immigration Debate"

"Immigration and Liberty"

"No One Has a Right to Make Immigration Policy"

"Immigration Foes, What's the Beef?"

"Heartless Immigration Restrictions Need Replacing"

"Glenn Loury's Collectivist Immigration Policy"

"A Refreshing Way to Think about Immigration"

"The Logical Flaw in Immigration Law"

"Trump & Co.'s Vile Anti-Immigrationism"

"Immigration and Social Engineering"

Report Card

What's the problem? So far the Trump administration has been Pretti Good.

Parallax Views Podcast: The Government Murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

J. G. Michael invited me on his podcast to talk about the U.S. immigration agents' recent murders of two American citizens in Minneapolis.

TGIF: Inept Con Man in the White House

Trump is hardly the first con man in the White House, but he is by far the most flagrant, and his scale is gargantuan. He's also rather inept. His latest confession came in a recent message to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

I've italicized confession. Here is Trump admitting that, in his quest for the Nobel Peace Prize, he prioritized something over "what is good and proper for the United States of America." In year two of his second term, that will change, he warns.

What did he put ahead of America's interest? Peace. There's another confession.

You hear that, MAGA? You got that, America Firsters? Your Dear Leader acknowledges that he has not been an America Firster at all, but a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump Firster. His goal wasn't to Make America Great Again, but to make his White House or Mar-a-Lago mantelpiece great.

Alas, the Nobel committee gave the prize to Venezuela's opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, a deserving recipient. Having lost the prize, presumably out of Norwegian spite, Trump has now reduced the cause of peace to merely one of several concerns.

So much is wrong with what Trump wrote to Store. First, Trump has not been thinking "purely of peace" since Jan. 20, 2025—far from it. He's aided and abetted Israel in its savage battering of the people of the Gaza Strip. His touted ceasefire, which Israel has violated over a thousand times, is a farce. He, along with Israel, attacked Iran while pretending to negotiate with its diplomats. His conduct regarding Russia's war against Ukraine hardly speaks of a person who thinks purely of peace. He invaded Venezuela and kidnapped Maduro. He has bombed boats and executed their crews in the Caribbean. He's bombed Somalia repeatedly, along with several other countries, including Syria. I'm sure I've missed some things.

Don't get me wrong. Trump does not lie. Lying implies one knows the truth and says something else. In contrast, he seems sincerely to believe, or hope, that what he says will shape reality. How can you be lying if your words create the facts? He's the ultimate primacy-of-consciousness subjectivist. As I observed in Trump's first term, the only way to shut him up is to inject him with sodium pentathol, i.e., truth serum.

One may wonder why Trump complained to the Norwegian prime minister. He doesn't pick the Peace Prize winner. Greenland, over which Trump had threatened tariffs against Western Europe, is a territory of Denmark, not Norway (as Trump acknowledged further on). And what does Greenland have to do with the Nobel Peace Prize? At any rate, not winning the prize hardly justified Trump's damaging tantrum, after which he claimed he did not care about the prize, classic sour grapes. Isn't it time he grew up?

Notwithstanding his embarrassing bluster at Davos over Greenland—which he several times called Iceland; could he have meant Graceland?—Trump (for now) has backed down. Europe and the stock market pushed back, and Trump again caved. He says he won't use force. He's cancelled the tariffs, and he claims, vaguely, that he and NATO have worked out a "framework of a future deal" for Arctic security. The top man at NATO says the sovereignty of Greenland, which Trump had insisted was absolutely necessary, was no part of the post-speech discussions.

In other words, Trump antagonized friendly nations and shook the world economy—then settled for the status quo. An open-ended security arrangement with NATO and Denmark has existed in treaty form since 1951! Did no one tell Trump? It must have been a blow to his ego. If he thinks he's saved face, he's pathetically mistaken. He looks like a damned fool, and everybody knows it.

Trump's monomaniacal quest for adoration and gratitude is so warped that he seems oblivious to the harm he does. Noninterventionist libertarians have opposed U.S. membership in NATO since its founding in 1949 because a strictly limited government would not obligate its taxpayers or military to defend other countries. Preparation for war is the health of the state. It's also provocative. So the U.S. should leave NATO. However, gracefully leaving an alliance and nihilistically smashing it on the way out are two different things. While Trump clearly has no intention of leaving NATO, he seems intent on wreaking havoc anyway.

In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson cautioned against "entangling alliances." That was good advice. But Trump is showing that things could be worse than the current alliance system. Presidential pugnacity toward people who bear us no ill will is bad for them and us. Jefferson also called for "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations." Trump must have missed part.

TGIF: The Trumpian ICE Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism

Welcome to the Trumpian ICE Age, a vivid lesson in the frigidity of collectivism. Take note, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Compared to Trump, you're a piker.

We've got a problem, and it's not just Houston's. It's the lawless, authoritarian, liberty-flouting Trump, who on all fronts grasps at maximum power—constitutional and statutory limits be damned. The fronts, so far, include immigration, drug prohibition, trade, corporate ownership, and everyday matters like oil prices, credit-card interest, pharmaceutical prices, and home sales. Trump is also eyeing medical insurance. Heaven help us. The guy doesn't have a pro-market sinew in his body. (For his "progressive" inclinations, see this.)

Most concerning of all is immigration, in which poorly recruited and poorly trained agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) conduct a reign of terror in a few selected "blue" cities, with more to come. Of course, the latest atrocity, as of this writing, took place in Minneapolis last week, where Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was executed—there's no other word—for failing to show respect to armed and masked ICE agents, cheerfully starting to drive away from an ICE checkpoint, where random people were being stopped for "immigration  checks." The killer violated ICE's own guidelines in at least two respects: he walked (obviously without fear) in front of Good's car, and he fired at her merely for leaving. Her last words, spoken softly and with a smile, as she began to drive away slowly, were, "I'm not mad at you guys."

“At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” Trump said, characteristically, after ICE man Jonathan Ross fired three shots, in under a second, into her car at close range. (Check the video for yourself.) Before that, Trump and his henchman (VP J.D. Vance) and henchwoman (Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem) had called Good a "domestic terrorist" and a "high-level agitator." The government later said Ross suffered internal bleeding and a bruise, supposedly from being bumped by Good's vehicle, but the video provides good reason to doubt that story. Trump and his people's reputation for veracity is negative. However one views the killing, we can be certain that it would not have happened had it not been for Trump's demagogic crusade to deport millions of people, the vast majority of whom live and work peacefully, because they lack government papers.

TGIF: "We're" All Neocons Now

Apart from a few details, I never saw much difference between Trump's America First shtick and MAGA's chief foe, the neconservatives. It appeared to be merely a squabble over details, such as whether democracy or strongman rule abroad best served the so-called national interest. No one believes in America Second, Third, or Nth.

Trump's action in Venezuela confirms my impression. Beneath the surface, the contrast between Trumpian America First and neoconservatism disappears. At his news conference after the Venezuela invasion and decapitation, Trump was asked, "Mr. President, why is running a country in South America Ame- -- America first?" To which he replied,  "Well, I think it is because we wanna surround ourself with good neighbors. We wanna surround ourself with stability. Uh, we wanna surround ourself with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It's very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world, and we wanna make sure we can protect it."

TGIF: Warm Individualism or Cold Collectivism?

Newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani promises to "replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism."

Funny that he chose those words.

In Europe, where collectivist anti-fossil-fuels "green" policies have been enacted in the name of combating a conjured-up climate emergency, many people get dangerously cold in the winter. So far, this hasn't happened on a large scale in America, where the climate collectivists have not been as adept in imposing their lethal program as their European counterparts. Freer markets keep people warmer in winter.

Zero-sum thinking, which is at the heart of socialism, also has a knack for creating a frigid attitude toward one's fellow man. When you believe that one person's gain is another's, perhaps your loss, you don't view your successful neighbor with warmth. The victims of Stalin's collectivist famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, some of whom were driven to cannibalism to survive, probably did not regard their neighbors or even their family members benevolently. Envy, suspicion, and hostility were characteristic of other places where ostensibly well-meaning rulers condemned selfishness and imposed various forms of collectivism. The death toll beggars belief. Some remain in denial about it. We can be certain that those catastrophes did not befall those tens of millions of innocent victims because they were deprived of a chance to vote on which clueless bureaucrats would administer society's central plan, as Mamdani and his "democratic" socialist followers suggest.

On the other hand, individualism in ethics and politics fosters benevolence—warmth—among individuals, who, mindful of their own rights and struggles to achieve values, respect the rights and struggles of others. Solidarity among individualists is no more a contradiction than the solidarity of members of a jazz band. 

Note that Mamdani uses the adjective rugged. Why? It is part of the ages-old smear campaign against the "selfish" pursuit of happiness. Jefferson's Locke-inspired inclusion of that phrase in the Declaration of Independence did not, unfortunately, admit egoism back into respectability. (It had some respectability in ancient Greece.)

Capitalism's detractors deploy the adjective rugged to suggest a system of myopic and short-sighted persons "greedily" stepping on and over one another in a mad free-for-all grab for material wealth. But aside from a relative few, that's not what typically happens when people are free. They quickly observe the gains from trade, the division of labor, and other market-based social cooperation, such as partnerships and corporations. (Ludwig von Mises nearly titled Human Action, his magnum opus, Social Cooperation.)

The benefits of free exchange to mutual advantage—win-win—were too obvious to ignore. The unprecedented and enduring increase in per-capita wealth that began around 1800 in the West was blindingly clear to all who were not determined to pretend it was not occurring. But what Deirdre McCloskey calls "the Great Enrichment" had another payoff besides hitherto-unknown widespread affluence: the fostering of benevolence. The gains from trade had to foster a goodwill that went beyond "mere" justice. Adam Smith famously pointed out that in the marketplace, one best serves one's own interests by attending to the interests of others. Such attention inevitably fosters warm acquaintanceships, friendships, and much more. (On the relationship between egoism and goodwill, see David Kelley's Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence.)

Capitalism's detractors hate that feature of the marketplace. In effect, they say, "That doesn't count as benevolence because it's done out of self-regard!" How silly. How childish. What could be more worthwhile than a social arrangement in which the interests of diverse individuals—each with his or her own dreams,  aspirations, and values— fundamentally align? It's an arrangement in which, unlike in the animal kingdom, the arena of competition is not consumption, but production. Consequently, the limits of nature's scarcity have been progressively loosened to a point where most of the eight billion people alive today live better than the one billion lived in 1800. (The lagging remainder continues to be victimized by collectivism. Liberalism has yet to come to town.)

You have some studying to do, Mr. Mayor. Too bad you didn't do it before embarking on your political career. Lives would have been spared.