As for Rothbard and Hoppe: They are economists, attempting to play philosopher gods. Since when do they have some magical power to mandate Truth? Those positions you bring forth are presented as if they are axiomatic. What makes them self-evident? Not a thing. I respect their opinions.... to a point.

A friend and I used to sit down with Hoppe when he taught at UNLV back in '89-'90 at a pub across the street. Each week, he and a few of his students would have a few beers and shoot the poop like this. Dude... HE IS A BRICK. Perhaps he could get away with some of his sophistry with the children in his class, but dealing with a 33 year old man who was pretty well read in Randian Objectivism, plus had real world experience from owning his own business since 24 years old... coming from the greater NYC area, it wasn't so easy for him. Typical to form, he wilted when forced into a position to provide at least SOME empirical evidence to back his CLAIMS.

funny thing how those two had no moral compunction against taking salary from THE STATE OF NEVADA!!! My friend and I used to bust Rothbard's balls over this once in a while when we'd bump into him in Kinkos across from UNLV. No sacred cows...... No false demigods, bud.