Defending the Undefendable by Walter Block is an interesting criticism of State prohibition of "victimless crimes" and government meddling with the voluntary transactions and liberties of individuals.
In the video above, he talks about the book that I mentioned. The PDF of the book is available over at the Mises Institute site: (http://mises.org/books/defending.pdf). The book discusses several controversial issues such as illegal drugs, prostitution, gambling and many other "bad" things and tries to show them in a different light. I'm not even sure exactly if I can agree with all his positions in the book because he really stretches the non-aggression principle to the max with the different issues he discusses.
After waking up this morning, I actually decided to start this article regarding the prohibition of Jueteng, an illegal numbers game very popular here in the Philippines and how it has inevitably created a black market that funds syndicates and corrupt government officials. After one paragraph though I was plagued by a stupid writer's block also known as I got lazy. So instead I just figured I'll share the thoughts of Walter Block who's surely more experienced in arguing effectively against prohibition in general and save my rant on legalization of Jueteng some other time.
Sometimes, society refuses to listen to facts especially when it deals with taboo topics. The fact is that prohibition of victimless crimes waste taxpayer's money, it doesn't work in eliminating the prohibited acts, and actually makes these "dangerous" things even more dangerous.
If you've actually checked out the HBO series Boardwalk Empire you'll see the dangers of the Alcohol prohibition in the US during the 1920's. That's not some conspiracy theory at all. It shows that historically, prohibition has been proven to fail and only makes things worse.
I've actually been watching a lot of Walter Block's speeches and debates online. He's actually the reason I read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (available here: http://mises.org/books/defending.pdf) because he said it's one of the books, along with Atlas Shrugged that he credits to have converted him into libertarianism.
I really need to improve on my writing and persuasive speech most especially since the libertarian principles I have learned to love and embrace many times provide me with an unpopular position on several issues. I feel that I have a responsibility of sorts and that when I am unprepared or when I fail even in casual discussions, I can actually make libertarianism look bad or even misrepresent it. For now, the goal is to study and learn as much as I can.
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