Rothbard’s ethic: self-ownership, property, contract, no aggression. This essay grants that and asks something else: what keeps the strongest inside those lines over time? That is power, not rights.

Thought experiment: A and B both acquire justly. Decades later A owns far more and can buy security, lawyers, arbitration, and losses B cannot. Equal self-ownership does not equal equal capacity. “A has no right to aggress” is true and incomplete. Rothbard already rejected “educationism” as enough against the state; the author applies the same doubt to private wealth.

Competing protection firms and courts are Rothbard’s enforcement answer—but a huge customer can warp those firms’ incentives. A just rule is not automatically self-enforcing. Education, reputation, exit, and competition may all help; they need a dynamic check when wealth is lopsided. Using the state to smash private power, the piece says, recreates Rothbard’s original problem. The unfinished question: what makes the most powerful stay inside the non-aggression rule?

Murray Rothbard gave libertarianism one of its clearest ethical structures: Individuals own themselves. From self-ownership follow property rights, contract, and the prohibition on aggression. Liberty does not mean that one person may rule another. It means that each person is bound by the same rule: do not invade the person or justly acquired property of others.

In The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard sought to establish a “social ethic of liberty.” But even if we accept his ethical argument in full, a different question remains: What keeps those boundaries stable over time? That is not a question about what is right, it is a question about power.

A Simple Thought Experiment

Suppose A and B both possess complete self-ownership. Their property is acquired in ways fully consistent with Rothbardian principles. There is no theft, fraud, state privilege, expropriation, or unjust initial acquisition.

After decades of voluntary exchange, investment, inheritance, and entrepreneurship, A owns far more property than B. Nothing about that result, by itself, violates Rothbard’s principles. Now let time continue.

A does not merely own more land, firms, and capital. He also has greater purchasing power. He can buy more security, legal services, arbitration, investigation, and........

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