[ExI] Crying "fire" in a crowded theater: Rothbard's view

[Dan]

I'm surprised to see no one is looking at what Rothbard actually wrote on this subject at:

http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp

(Just search on "fire" for the passage dealing with this issue.)

Notice how this view actually clears up much.  No need for a judge or government to weigh one person's rights against another's (or against an collective or abstraction like "society" or the "community").  No need for fuzzy boundaries.  This is not to say that Rothbard's system completely banishes all ambiguities and fuzziness, but I believe, in this case, it confutes Holmes and his seconds.  (There is one fault in Rothbard's analysis: a third party -- neither owner nor patron -- might cry "fire" in the theater.  But, in that case, in his system, it still resolves to a property rights issue.)

Regards,

Dan