# Post Analysis: @Handre on Rothbard (Oct 21, 2026) Back to [[Murray Rothbard]] · Author: [[Users/@handre/handre-x-profile|@Handre]] ## The post (verbatim) **[@Handre](https://x.com/Handre)** (Handre van Heerden), **Oct 21, 2026, 12:46 AM CT**: <https://x.com/Handre/status/2112782486409252882> > Murray Rothbard took Mises's price theory and drove it to a destination Mises never reached. > > Mises built the case that central planning fails because socialist planners cannot perform rational economic calculation without real market prices. Prices carry information that no committee can replicate. Rothbard accepted every word of this and asked the obvious follow-up: if state intervention distorts prices and destroys coordination, why stop your critique at the water's edge? Why exempt the state itself from the logic? > > The answer required property rights. Rothbard grounded everything in self-ownership. You own your body. By extension, you own what you mix your labor with, provided you homestead it from a prior unowned state. Every other right flows from this. Taxation is the seizure of your property under threat of imprisonment. > > From that foundation, Rothbard constructed anarcho-capitalism systematically, not as a utopian dream but as the logical terminus of taking rights seriously. Defense, arbitration, contract enforcement: private firms supply all of it in a competitive market. His 1973 book "For a New Liberty" laid this out with unflinching precision. His 1982 "The Ethics of Liberty" supplied the philosophical scaffolding. > > What Rothbard accomplished was a fusion, not a compromise. Mises gave him the economic engine. Locke and Lysander Spooner supplied the moral chassis. The result was a system where aggression has no legitimate institutional home, including Congress, including the Federal Reserve, including every bureaucrat drawing a salary your paycheck funded involuntarily. ![[handre-rothbard-2112782486409252882.png|300]] **Media:** one photo (<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HVIcd8rWsAACbwe.png>) of Rothbard, in glasses and a navy blazer, writing on a classroom chalkboard. The chalk appears to read "…Turgot (177…". Turgot is one of the heroes of Rothbard's history of thought. The post gives no credit for the photo, and I could not confirm where it came from. **Links, quoted post, thread:** none. It is a single long-form post with no links and no citations. @Handre did not add a self-reply thread, and I found no replies from @Handre among the 50 replies I read. **Engagement** (read at about 9:45 PM CT on Oct 21, about 21 hours after posting): 764 likes · 191 reposts · 41 replies · 19 quotes · 187 bookmarks · about 17,630 impressions. ## Claim-by-claim check Ratings: ✅ accurate · 🟡 partly accurate / simplified · ⚠️ misleading · ❓ unsourced or unverifiable | # | Claim in the post | Rating | What the sources show | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | "Rothbard took Mises's price theory and drove it to a destination Mises never reached." | 🟡 | The core point holds. Mises was a classical liberal who wanted "government strictly limited to the defense of person and property" ([Mises Institute bio of Mises](https://mises.org/profile/ludwig-von-mises)), and Rothbard was an anarchist ([SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard)). But "price theory" is the wrong label for what Rothbard extended. It was Mises's **economic calculation** argument together with his laissez-faire policy conclusions. Mises himself went partway: in *Liberalism* (1927) he wrote that self-determination should be granted "to every individual person" *if it were in any way possible* ([Mises, Liberalism ch. 3 §2](https://mises.org/online-book/liberalism-classical-tradition/3-liberal-foreign-policy/2-right-self-determination)). | | 2 | "Mises built the case that central planning fails because socialist planners cannot perform rational economic calculation without real market prices." | ✅ | This is Mises's 1920 "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth," expanded in *Socialism* (1922) and *Human Action* (1949). One precision: the argument is about prices for **means of production**, which need private ownership and exchange of capital goods ([Mises Institute bio](https://mises.org/profile/ludwig-von-mises); [SEP bibliography: Mises 1935 English trans.](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/)). | | 3 | "Prices carry information that no committee can replicate." | ⚠️ | This is **Hayek's** framing ("The Use of Knowledge in Society," *AER* 1945), not Mises's. Rothbard explicitly rejected treating Mises's argument as a knowledge problem: "to Mises the central problem is not 'knowledge'… The problem is not knowledge, then, but calculability" ([Rothbard 1991, *RAE* 5(2)](https://mises.org/review-austrian-economics/end-socialism-and-calculation-debate-revisited)). Joseph Salerno built on this in "Mises and Hayek Dehomogenized" ([1993](https://mises.org/review-austrian-economics/mises-and-hayek-dehomogenized)). So the post credits to Mises, and has Rothbard "accept every word" of, the very framing that Rothbard argued against. A reply in the thread from a Misesian ([@MartinCGamazoR](https://x.com/MartinCGamazoR/status/2112990633661018558)) makes the same point. | | 4 | "Rothbard accepted every word of this…" | 🟡 | He accepted the calculation argument fully and extended it (see #5). He did **not** accept all of Mises. He rejected Mises's subjectivist, utilitarian ethics in favour of natural law ([Gordon](https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard)), and *The Ethics of Liberty* has a section critiquing "Ludwig von Mises and 'Value-Free' Laissez Faire" (ch. 26C, [EoL PDF](https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty_2.pdf)). | | 5 | "…why stop your critique at the water's edge? Why exempt the state itself from the logic?" | 🟡 | **Partly documented.** In *Man, Economy, and State* Rothbard extended the calculation argument to (a) any single firm owning the whole economy, which "could not calculate" (ch. 10; [Gordon](https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard)), and (b) every government enterprise: "each governmental firm introduces its own island of chaos into the economy; there is no need to wait for full socialism" (ch. 12 §E, "Centers of Calculational Chaos," [MES PDF p. 953](https://cdn.mises.org/man_economy_and_state_with_power_and_market_3.pdf)). **But** by his biographer's account, his actual turn to anarchism (winter 1949) came from a different question: if the market should supply all goods, "should not even protection and defense be offered on the market rather than supplied by a coercive monopoly?" ([Gordon](https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard)). He was also influenced by Spooner, Tucker and Molinari ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard); Hoppe's introduction to [EoL](https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty_2.pdf)). Hoppe's introduction to EoL does credit Rothbard with "repairing the few remaining inconsistencies in the Misesian system (such as his theory of monopoly prices and of government and governmental security production)." The post's chain from price distortion to anarchism is a plausible reconstruction, not documented history. | | 6 | "Rothbard grounded everything in self-ownership." | ✅ | *For a New Liberty* ch. 2 begins from "the basic axiom of the 'right to self-ownership'" ([FNL PDF](https://cdn.mises.org/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf)). *The Ethics of Liberty* treats self-ownership as its basic principle ([Gordon](https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard)). | | 7 | "You own what you mix your labor with, provided you homestead it from a prior unowned state." | ✅ | This is Rothbard's Lockean homesteading principle (FNL ch. 2; EoL chs. 6–10). Unlike Locke, Rothbard **rejected the Lockean proviso** ("enough and as good"), so a homesteader "becomes the proper owner eternally" ([SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard)). The post leaves out this contested detail. | | 8 | "Every other right flows from this." | ✅ | Matches EoL ch. 15, "'Human Rights' as Property Rights." | | 9 | "Taxation is the seizure of your property under threat of imprisonment." | ✅ | This closely paraphrases his texts. EoL ch. 22: "Taxation is theft, purely and simply… It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State's inhabitants" (p. 162–63). FNL ch. 3: revenue taken "by the direct threat of confiscation or imprisonment if payment is not forthcoming." | | 10 | "Rothbard constructed anarcho-capitalism systematically…" | ✅ | He is credited with coining "anarcho-capitalist/anarcho-capitalism" and with developing and popularizing the terms in the early 1970s. The earliest attested use is Karl Hess's 1969 *Playboy* essay "The Death of Politics" ([Wikipedia: Anarcho-capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism)). | | 11 | "…not as a utopian dream…" | ✅ (as characterisation) | Hoppe's introduction to EoL describes "the fundamental realism—anti-utopianism—of his private-property anarchism". It notes that Rothbard "took it for granted that there will always be murderers, thieves, thugs" and so gave punishment "central importance." | | 12 | "Defense, arbitration, contract enforcement: private firms supply all of it…" | ✅ | FNL ch. 12 ("Police, Law, and the Courts"); *Power and Market* ch. 1 ("Defense Services on the Free Market"). | | 13 | "His 1973 book 'For a New Liberty'… His 1982 'The Ethics of Liberty'…" | ✅ | *For a New Liberty* was published in 1973 (Macmillan/Collier; revised 1978). *The Ethics of Liberty* was published in 1982 (Humanities Press; NYU Press 1998). The roles described (manifesto, then philosophical foundation) match Rothbard's own framing ([SEP bibliography](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard)). | | 14 | "Mises gave him the economic engine. Locke and Lysander Spooner supplied the moral chassis." | 🟡 | This is incomplete. Gordon says his ethics came from **Aristotelian and Thomist** natural law. Rothbard credited **Ayn Rand** with introducing him to natural-rights philosophy (1958 letter, per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard)). For the private-defense idea he credited **Gustave de Molinari**, "the first person in history to contemplate and advocate a free market for police protection" (FNL p. 271). **Benjamin Tucker** was another major influence. | | 15 | "…including Congress, including the Federal Reserve, including every bureaucrat…" | ✅ (as characterisation) | Consistent with his anti-state theory and *The Case Against the Fed* (1994). | | — | **Omissions** | ⚠️ | The post is hagiographic. It does not mention Rothbard's late "paleolibertarian" turn and "right-wing populism," including holding up David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as strategic models. It also leaves out his calls to repeal the Civil Rights Act, his advocacy of a "free market in children" and of no legal duty to feed one's children (EoL ch. 14), his World War II revisionism and friendship with Harry Elmer Barnes, and the fact that mainstream economics largely ignored him ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard); [SEP](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/)). | ### Verdict **It holds up well on doctrine and weakly on history.** Every claim about *what Rothbard believed* (claims 6–13) checks out against his own books. The intellectual-history frame is simplified. It misattributes Hayek's "prices carry information" idea to Mises, overstates how completely Rothbard accepted Mises, and presents a reconstruction ("why exempt the state?") as if it were how he actually reached anarchism. There are no sources in the post. Several of its phrasings ("the logical terminus," "a fusion, not a compromise") are rhetoric, not facts. One reply accused the post of "AI-isms" ([@EpektasisJohn](https://x.com/EpektasisJohn/status/2112911332211044793)). That is a stylistic opinion, and I did not verify it. ## Notable reactions **Quote posts (16 read of 19):** - [@JosephJakeKlein](https://x.com/JosephJakeKlein/status/2112914380203683865) (FEE Hazlitt Fellow): "the most important essay to read to understand anarcho-capitalism isn't actually one of Rothbard's, but Mises's Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." - [@MrExaminer](https://x.com/MrExaminer/status/2112897195485675907): "the anarchism seeds were already planted in his [Mises's] works, including in Menger's works who preceded him." (The API cut off the rest of the text.) - [@whatiswrong333](https://x.com/whatiswrong333/status/2112823308823515546) (in Czech; 9 likes, 7 replies, the most-discussed quote): says Rothbard appealed to them "as a thought experiment" in how far Enlightenment liberalism can be pushed, but did not convince them. The objection is to Rothbard's picture of the person as an autonomous "holder of reason" (my translation; the API cut the text off). - [@CapeFairCaptain](https://x.com/CapeFairCaptain/status/2112876333864816801): calls the non-aggression principle "as absurd a proposition as" anti-reproductive policies on the left. - [@MisterLeeHODL](https://x.com/MisterLeeHODL/status/2112819628929912928): "The 'Taxation is theft' moniker owes its intellectual allegiance to Murray Rothbard." - [@torotoro551](https://x.com/torotoro551/status/2112830694669930975): connects the post to Javier Milei. **Replies (50 conversation posts read, newest first, across two pages; the post shows 41 direct replies, and nested sub-replies push the conversation past 50; a further page exists):** - [@MartinCGamazoR](https://x.com/MartinCGamazoR/status/2112990633661018558) (replying to @EpektasisJohn): a long Austrian explanation of why Mises's calculation problem is not Hayek's knowledge problem, which supports check #3. - [@JungleReportFi](https://x.com/JungleReportFi/status/2113000992082116766): points to existing private arbitration (ICC, AAA) as a real-world partial analogue to Rothbard's competing courts. - [@freemarkets1776](https://x.com/freemarkets1776/status/2112927325612368006) (minarchist objection): "There cant be warring police tribes in market competition protecting rights. Government is force and it must hold the monopoly over the use of force, but only in defense of rights" - [@EgmontHandtke](https://x.com/EgmontHandtke/status/2112996766320840935) (AXEC): "von Mises never understood profit. Murray Rothbard never understood profit. Handre never understood profit." This is a heterodox position from the author's own AXEC framework. - [@RobertR38073004](https://x.com/RobertR38073004/status/2112941141478019156): says he met Rothbard ("warm, funny, brilliant") and recorded a lecture. - [@AlecBuscemi](https://x.com/AlecBuscemi/status/2113093379127173228): Rothbard "would eliminate much of proper govt for Somalia like govt." - A long side thread by [@tlanderso](https://x.com/tlanderso/status/2112937878275957134) argues that "Libertarianism was always fascism" and attacks the Koch family. It is off-topic polemic and unsourced. ## Sources - The post: https://x.com/Handre/status/2112782486409252882 (X API read, Oct 21, 2026) - Rothbard, *For a New Liberty* (Mises Institute ed.): https://cdn.mises.org/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf - Rothbard, *The Ethics of Liberty* (NYU/Mises ed. with Hoppe introduction): https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty_2.pdf - Rothbard, *Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market* (Scholar's ed.): https://cdn.mises.org/man_economy_and_state_with_power_and_market_3.pdf - Rothbard, "The End of Socialism and the Calculation Debate Revisited," *Review of Austrian Economics* 5(2), 1991, pp. 51–76: https://mises.org/review-austrian-economics/end-socialism-and-calculation-debate-revisited (DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02426928) - Joseph T. Salerno, "Mises and Hayek Dehomogenized," *RAE* 6(2), 1993: https://mises.org/review-austrian-economics/mises-and-hayek-dehomogenized - F. A. Hayek, "The Use of Knowledge in Society," *American Economic Review* 35(4), 1945, pp. 519–530 (cited in SEP bibliography) - Mises, *Liberalism* (1927), ch. 3 §2: https://mises.org/online-book/liberalism-classical-tradition/3-liberal-foreign-policy/2-right-self-determination - Mises Institute biography of Mises: https://mises.org/profile/ludwig-von-mises - David Gordon, Rothbard biography: https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard - SEP, "Libertarianism": https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/ - Wikipedia, "Murray Rothbard" and "Anarcho-capitalism" (accessed 2026-10-21): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism - Quote and reply posts linked inline above (X API reads, Oct 21, 2026)