Walter Edward Block (born 21 August 1941) is a
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
economist and anarcho-capitalist associated with the
Austrian SchoolThe Austrian School is a school of economic thought that emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism or price system...
.
Block was born in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Abraham Block, a
certified public accountantCertified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
, and Ruth Block, a paralegal, both of whom Block has described as "liberals." He earned his undergraduate degree in
PhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
(with honors) from
Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New York...
where he was a member of the varsity swimming team. Block earned his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
degree in
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
and wrote his dissertation on
rent controlRent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling.-Rent controls around the world:Rent control exists in approximately 40 countries around the world...
.
Block self-identifies as a "devout atheist".
Block now holds the Harold E.
Walter Edward Block (born 21 August 1941) is a
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
economist and anarcho-capitalist associated with the
Austrian SchoolThe Austrian School is a school of economic thought that emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism or price system...
.
Personal history and education
Block was born in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Abraham Block, a
certified public accountantCertified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
, and Ruth Block, a paralegal, both of whom Block has described as "liberals." He earned his undergraduate degree in
PhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
(with honors) from
Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New York...
where he was a member of the varsity swimming team. Block earned his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
degree in
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
and wrote his dissertation on
rent controlRent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling.-Rent controls around the world:Rent control exists in approximately 40 countries around the world...
.
Block self-identifies as a "devout atheist".
Professional career
Block now holds the Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair in Economics at
Loyola UniversityLoyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was later chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
in New Orleans. From 1979 to 1991, he was the Senior Economist with the
Fraser InstituteThe Fraser Institute is a think tank based in Canada that espouses free market principles. Its stated mandate is to advocate for freedom and competitive markets. It generally opposes public policy solutions based on government spending, taxes, deficits, and regulation...
, and, from 1998 to 2002, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Aspen InstituteThe Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. Today, the organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues."...
. In addition to his faculty position at Loyola, Block is also a Senior Faculty member of the
Ludwig von Mises InstituteThe Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
for Austrian Economics. His most famous work is
Defending the Undefendable, of which
John StosselJohn F. Stossel is a consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author, libertarian columnist, and former co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20. Stossel began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV and later became a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City before joining ABC News...
said, "Defending the Undefendable... opened my eyes to the beauties of libertarianism. It explains that so much of what is assumed to be evil--is not."
Lew RockwellLlewellyn Harrison Rockwell, Jr. , widely known as Lew Rockwell, is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute....
of the Mises Institute said this about Walter Block's active role in modern libertarianism:
Murray RothbardMurray Newton Rothbard was an American intellectual, individualist anarchist, author, and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism"...
, in his life, was known as Mr. Libertarian. We can make a solid case that the title now belongs to Walter Block, a student of Rothbard's whose own vita is as thick as a big-city phonebook, and as diverse as Wikipedia. Whether he is writing on economic theory, ethics, political secession, drugs, roads, education, monetary policy, social theory, unions, political language, or anything else, his prose burns with a passion for this single idea: if human problems are to be solved, the solution is to be found by permitting greater liberty.
Introduction to libertarianism
Block's early thinking life was characterized by egalitarian thought. In an interview by the Austrian Economics Newsletter, Block stated, "In the fifties and sixties, I was just another commie living in Brooklyn." Block credits his "conversion" to
libertarianismLibertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state...
to personal meetings with
Ayn RandAyn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
while he was an undergraduate student.
Alan GreenspanAlan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...
was in attendance at some of these meetings. As Block describes it, "In 1963, when I was a senior at Brooklyn College, Ayn Rand came there to give a lecture. I attended, along with about 3,000 of my fellow mainly leftish students, in order to boo and hiss her, since she was evil incarnate…Not having had enough booing and hissing at Ayn in her formal lecture, I decided to…to further express my displeasure with her and her views."
Block thereafter attended a luncheon with Rand,
Nathaniel BrandenNathaniel Branden, né Nathan Blumenthal , is a psychotherapist and writer best known today for his work in the psychology of self-esteem...
, and
Leonard PeikoffLeonard S. Peikoff is an American Objectivist philosopher. He is a former professor of philosophy and a former radio talk show host. He is the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and the legal heir to Ayn Rand's estate....
. After Block's challenging of several luncheon attendees to demonstrate capitalism's superiority, Branden forged an agreement with Block: "Nathan very graciously offered to come to the other end of the table with me for this purpose, but he imposed two preconditions: first, I would be honor bound not to allow this conversation to lapse with this one meeting, but would continue with it until we had achieved a resolution: either he would convince me of the error of my ways, or I would convince him of his. Second, I would read two books he would later recommend to me (
Atlas Shrugged Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. This was Rand's fourth, longest and last novel, and she considered it her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
by Ayn Rand and Economics in One LessonEconomics in One Lesson is an introduction to free market economics written by Henry Hazlitt and published in 1946, based on Frédéric Bastiat's essay .The "One Lesson" is stated in Part One of the book:...
by Henry HazlittHenry Hazlitt was a libertarian economist, and journalist for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The American Mercury, among other publications.- Biography :...
).
Although Block credits Ayn Rand, Branden, and other Objectivists with his initial interest in laissez faire theory in general, he says of
Murray RothbardMurray Newton Rothbard was an American intellectual, individualist anarchist, author, and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism"...
that,
After I met Murray, it took him probably all of 15 minutes to convert me to the same anarcho-capitalist position I have held ever since.... In retrospect, before I had met Murray, I was nine tenths of the way toward embracing laissez faire capitalist anarchism; all I needed was a little push in the same direction I had already been going for some time.
Slave contracts
Block, along with
Robert NozickRobert Nozick was an American philosopher and professor at Harvard University. He was educated at Columbia , where he studied with Sidney Morgenbesser, at Princeton , and Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar. He was a prominent American political philosopher in the 1970s and 1980s...
is one of the leading libertarian defenders of slave contracts, arguing that it "is a bona fide contract" which, if "abrogated, theft occurs" and critiques other libertarians who oppose voluntary slavery as being inconsistent with their shared principles. Block seeks to make "a tiny adjustment" which 'strengthens libertarianism by making it more internally consistent." He argues that his position shows "that contract, predicated on private property [can] reach to the furthest realms of human interaction, even to voluntary slave contracts."
Endorsement
On February 17, 2006, Dr. Walter Block publicly expressed his support for the
Free State Project (FSP)The Free State Project is an Internet-based political movement, founded in 2001, to get at least 20,000 libertarian-leaning people to move to New Hampshire in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideals....
. He is quoted as saying,
You people are doing the Lord's work. The FSP is one of the freshest practical ideas for promoting liberty that has come out of the libertarian movement in the past few decades. May you succeed beyond your wildest dreams, and thus demonstrate in yet another empirical way the benefits and blessings of liberty.
As author
- Defending the Undefendable (1976; translated into Chinese, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian languages) ISBN 0-930073-05-3
- A Response to the Framework Document for Amending the Combines Investigation Act
The Combines Investigation Act was a Canadian Act of Parliament, implemented in 1910, passed in 1923 by MacKenzie King, which regulated certain corporate business practices that were anti-competitive. It prohibited monopolies, misleading advertising, bid-rigging, price fixing, and other means of...
(1982)
- Focus on Economics and the Canadian Bishops (1983)
- Focus on Employment Equity: A Critique of the Abella Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (with Michael A. Walker
Michael A Walker is a writer of film and television. Winner and nominee of over fifteen awards for his produced work, he recently collaborated with Anthony Horowitz on a new five part ITV drama Collision...
; 1985)
- The U.S. Bishops and Their Critics: An Economic and Ethical Perspective (1986)
- Lexicon of Economic Thought (with Michael A. Walker; 1988)
- Economic Freedom of the World, 1975-1995 (with James Gwartney, Robert Lawson
Robert Lawson may refer to:*Robert Lawson , American Revolutionary War militia general*Robert Lawson , Scottish architect who emigrated to New Zealand*Robert Lawson , American author and artist...
; 1996)
- The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors (2006)
As editor
- Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance for the 1980s (Ed.; 1980)
- Rent Control: Myths & Realities (Ed. with Edgar Olsen; 1981)
- Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (Ed. with Michael A. Walker
Michael A Walker is a writer of film and television. Winner and nominee of over fifteen awards for his produced work, he recently collaborated with Anthony Horowitz on a new five part ITV drama Collision...
; 1982)
- Taxation: An International Perspective (Ed. with Michael A. Walker
Michael A Walker is a writer of film and television. Winner and nominee of over fifteen awards for his produced work, he recently collaborated with Anthony Horowitz on a new five part ITV drama Collision...
; 1984)
- Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation (Ed.; 1985; translated into Portuguese 1992) ISBN 0-88975-067-X
- Morality of the Market: Religious and Economic Perspectives (Ed. with Geoffrey Brennan
Geoffrey Brennan is an Australian philosopher. He is currently a professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a professor of political science at Duke University...
, Kenneth Elzinga; 1985)
- Theology, Third World Development and Economic Justice (Ed. with Donald Shaw; 1985)
- Reaction: The New Combines Investigation Act (Ed.; 1986)
- Religion, Economics & Social Thought (Ed. with Irving Hexham
Irving Hexham is a Canadian academic and writer who has published twenty-three books and numerous articles, chapters, and book reviews in respected academic journals. Currently, he is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, married to Dr...
; 1986)
- Man, Economy and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard (Ed. with Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell, Jr. , widely known as Lew Rockwell, is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute....
; 1988)
- Breaking the Shackles; the Economics of Deregulation: A Comparison of U.S. and Canadian Experience (Ed. with George Lermer; 1991)
- Economic Freedom: Toward a Theory of Measurement (Ed.; 1991)
- Libertarian Autobiographies (Ed.; forthcoming)
Articles
- "Katrina and the Future of New Orleans" Telos 139, Summer 2007.
External links