Bob Murphy

Author Archive

God Is In Control

A short one, since two people I was talking to today said they also (like me) had been dealing with such issues recently. Specifically, we get stressed out thinking we’re carrying the world on our shoulders, and then through prayer realize that we are not the ones running the show. Moreover, the Person who *is* […]

Something Is Screwed Up in the Labor Market

As part of my research on the Affordable Care Act (aka “ObamaCare”), I used the standard government statistics to look at Part Time Employment compared to Total Employment. Here’s the graph: Now be careful, there was a change in definitions of “part time” in the mid-1990s, which is responsible for that spike. So arguably you […]

“If You Hate the Government So Much, Move to Somalia!”

I tackle this common objection in my latest LibertyChat article. An excerpt: People lose the ability to think rationally when it comes to politics, so let’s change the context for a moment. Suppose I say, “You can get a better night’s sleep if the room is dark.” Would it be a good put-down for a […]

Further Thoughts on Plea Bargains

I tried to deal with some of the (excellent) objections I got from my last post. An excerpt: Don’t plea bargains minimize the coercion against individuals? As one critic put it, who is the “victim” here? How does a defendant lose by being offered a deal that he has the right to refuse? Although superficially plausible, […]

Potpourri

==> In the last third of this Tom Woods podcast on book publishing, he goes off on his critics who accuse Tom of “just writing books to get money from the liberty movement.” (Just think about what kind of a person would make such a comment.) I love it when Tom goes off on Internet […]

Norman Horn on Christian Libertarianism

Obama on Pulling Troops Out of Iraq

This is pretty awesome, just watch the whole thing, it’s short.

Government Plea Bargains Are a Horrible Practice

I think you will like this one; it has a plot twist near the end. The opening: Because it is so commonplace, most people accept the practice of State prosecutors offering a “plea bargain” without much thought. After all, it seems like a win-win situation: the State saves on court costs and other resources, while […]