Wendy and Carl

Lately I have come across links that either refer to, or are written by Carl Watner and Wendy McElroy, who as you probably know if you've been reading this blog are the main founders of The Voluntaryist.

Running across their work gave me the idea that one thing I could continue to do with this blog is post those items when I see them. So that's what this post is about.

The first item I wanted to mention is part of Robert Wenzel's 30 Day Reading List That Will Lead You To Becoming A Knowledgeable Libertarian. The piece for Day 15 is Murray Rothbard's introduction to Lysander Spooner's Vices are not Crimes and in that introduction Rothbard writes,

We are all indebted to Carl Watner for uncovering an unknown work by the great Lysander Spooner, one that managed to escape the editor of Spooner's Collected Works.

I have since read Spooner's Vices are not Crimes and there it's a great little book. You have to love how Spooner just lays out each objection and then goes on to demolish it with logical reasoned points.

One place in particular was interesting to me personally because it pretty much mirrored my ideas on parenting. Spooner says parents need to be careful that they are not keeping their children from questioning, from experimenting, because in doing so, we can prevent them from developing their ability to figure out what is and is not conducive of his well-being. (More on this is in Section XIV of Spooner's book.)

Another example of something I found particularly interesting is that Spooner defended assisted suicide and explains why it should not be a crime. The man was so far ahead of his time wasn't he?

Now to Wendy. She is presently doing a lot of writing in various places but for this post I wanted to point to her writings for The Daily Anarchist. She has not written much on that site yet, but what she has posted has been particularly interesting and relevant to me because two of her posts are about Georgism and the single tax. I'm interested in all libertarian analysis of Georgist ideas because I have one libertarian-minded acquaintance who has really taken to the idea. Frankly he is rabid about it and is constantly pushing me to investigate it. But I just can't even get enthused enough to get started because it does not seem to really solve any problems that I see with what we have now because the single tax still relies on having someone manage it.

Anyway, everything she has posted there has been very interesting and thought-provoking for me.

So, if you are looking for more from Carl and Wendy, then I encourage you to check these items out.