The Voluntary Life

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The Only Ideal of Libertarianism is Peace Aug 02, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'The Only Ideal of Libertarianism is Peace' by Jake Desyllas.

Libertarianism is usually defended on the grounds of individual freedom, economic prosperity, or the rejection of hierarchy and tradition. In this article, Jake argues that all of these are downstream of a single, more fundamental ideal: peace. Ethics, correctly conceived, exists to resolve conflict over scarce resources peacefully — and the objective property rights that follow are the means, not the end. Freedom and prosperity are empirical consequences of implementing peace, not goals in themselves. The practical implication is that libertarians should focus first on whatever most threatens peace: war abroad, and aggression against property at home — whether by the State or by private criminals.

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2024/10/4/the-only-ideal-of-libertarianism-is-peace on 4 October 2024.

A Critique of George H. Smith's Theory of Parental Obligations Jul 26, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'A Critique of George H. Smith's Theory of Parental Obligations' by Jake Desyllas.

George H. Smith wrote more about children's rights than almost any other libertarian, yet when he came to set out his own theory of the parental role he advocated a version of parenting as a voluntary social contract between parents and society at large. In this episode, Jake examines the argument Smith made in his 2013 Cato Institute essay, shows why it cannot account for any enforceable duty that parents owe their children, and asks why Smith reached for this flawed theory in the first place, despite being aware of the rival causal theory of parental responsibility. The conjecture: Smith's prior commitment to defending abortion ruled out the one theory that would have served him best. Another case study in how support for abortion has corrupted libertarian theory.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 1:20 Smith's Theory 4:27 Smith's Motivation

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/9/3/a-critique-of-george-h-smiths-theory-of-parental-obligations on 3 September 2025.

The First Extreme Saver Jul 19, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'The First Extreme Saver' by Jake Desyllas.

Extreme saving — putting away fifty percent or more of your income to reach financial independence within a decade — feels like a recent invention, the work of FIRE bloggers and Joe Dominguez's *Your Money Or Your Life*. It isn't. In this episode Jake traces the idea back to the Victorian bestseller Samuel Smiles, whose 1875 book *Thrift* made the case to ordinary working people that saving was both a personal virtue and a social good, and casually recommended savings rates that today's audiences would find startling. The piece is a short reminder that frugality and long-horizon thinking used to be mainstream advice, not a fringe lifestyle — and an invitation to ask why that shifted.

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2016/11/4/the-first-extreme-saver on 14 November 2016.

A Critique of Roderick Long's Theory Of Parental Obligations Jul 12, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'A Critique of Roderick Long's Theory Of Parental Obligations' by Jake Desyllas.

Roderick Long sets out a clear version of the causal-peril principle: if your voluntary actions place another person in danger, you acquire an enforceable obligation to get them out of peril. But when Long applies this principle to parenthood, his arguments are inconsistent. Fathers, on Long's account, are bound by their causal actions. Mothers escape causal responsibility entirely, acquiring obligations only by the choice not to abort. This episode walks through the contradictions: the gender double standard Long openly acknowledges and refuses to resolve, the strange "reversal of responsibility" that treats unborn children as agents using their mothers' bodies, the matriarchal property-right framing in which fathers are obligated only if mothers permit it, and his ad-hominem dismissal of the causal obligations argument.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 3:33 Men Have Responsibility For Their Actions, But Women Don't 5:04 Pregnancy Creates Special Exemptions For Women Being Responsible For Their Actions 7:38 Reversal of Responsibility 8:57 A Matriarchal Theory Of Parental Ownership 10:19 Dismissing Parental Obligations As Mere Sexism 11:34 Conclusion

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/9/23/a-critique-of-roderick-longs-theory-of-parental-obligations on 23 September 2025.

What The Declaration of Independence Should Have Said Jul 04, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'What The Declaration of Independence Should Have Said' by Jake Desyllas.

The preamble of the US Declaration of Independence is among the most influential passages in the history of libertarian thought — but does it actually hold up to the way libertarians now think about rights? In this short piece, Jake Desyllas proposes a rewrite. He argues that "all men are created equal" claims more than is self-evident, that "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" obscures the underlying property-rights framework, and that the preamble's commitment to self-evident truths is better grounded in claims that cannot be denied without contradiction. The result is a tighter, more rigorous foundation for rights: self ownership, homesteading, and voluntary agreement, with universal law applying equally to all.

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2024/11/28/what-the-declaration-of-independence-should-have-said on 28 November 2024.

Children Do Not Have Obligations to Their Parents Jun 28, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'Children Do Not Have Obligations to Their Parents' by Jake Desyllas.

In a libertarian legal order, parents owe positive obligations to their children — to feed, shelter, and protect them — because the parents' own actions brought the child into existence. But does the relationship run the other way? Do grown children owe their parents care in old age? In this short piece Jake argues no: legitimate positive obligations arise only from one's own actions, and a child has not acted to create the relationship he is born into. He examines Andrew J. Peach's case for "unchosen" filial obligations and finds it unjustified, then turns to a different question — whether young children have a moral, though unenforceable, duty to obey their parents in cases where paternal protection is warranted.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 1:34 The Peach Counter-argument 4:16 Children's Obligations During Childhood

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/5/22/children-do-not-have-obligations-to-their-parents on 22 May 2025.

The Theory Of Acquired Rights Violates Hoppe's Specificity Principle Jun 21, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'The Theory Of Acquired Rights Violates Hoppe's Specificity Principle' by Jake Desyllas.

Do we have rights because of what we are, or because of some capacity we later acquire? Libertarians are split, and the stakes run straight through the hardest questions about children, abortion, and self-ownership. This episode tests the two rival theories against one of Hans-Hermann Hoppe's meta-ethical principles: that every property right must be specific about who holds it and when. Drawing on admissions from Tibor Machan, Judith Jarvis Thomson, and Stephan Kinsella, it argues that the theory of acquired rights cannot say when a child becomes a self-owner, and so fails the test on its own terms. The theory of inherent rights, which locates the start of rights at conception, does not. A short, sharp piece on a meta-ethical principle with large consequences.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 2:25 The theory of acquired rights is not specific about when a child becomes a self owner 7:29 The Theory of Inherent Rights Conforms To The Specificity Principle

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/1/21/the-theory-of-acquired-rights-violates-hoppes-specificity-principle on 21 January 2025.

Three Questions Philosophers Do Not Want To Answer About Parenting Jun 14, 2026

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An AI narration of the article 'Three Questions Philosophers Do Not Want To Answer About Parenting' by Jake Desyllas.

Why are books on the ethics of parenting so consistently dull? In this episode, Jake Desyllas argues that the blandness is no accident — it is the product of strategic omission. Philosophers of the family routinely skirt around questioning the practices that most urgently deserve scrutiny: corporal punishment, circumcision, and abortion. These are widely accepted parental practices that are also ethically indefensible, and they constitute acts of aggression by parents that violate the rights of their children. Drawing on Patrick Lenta, Walter Block and Patrick Testa, and Brad Stetson, Jake explains how this silence functions as conformity to intellectual taboo — and why refusing to address such questions is an abdication of the basic responsibility of a philosopher.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 2:35 Corporal Punishment 3:38 Circumcision 4:24 Abortion 6:06 Recent Practices to Add to the List

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/2/5/three-questions-philosophers-do-not-want-to-answer-about-parenting on 5 February 2025.

The Cost of Bad Street Design Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

An AI narration of the article 'The Cost of Bad Street Design' by Jake Desyllas.

In this article, Jake Desyllas examines the hidden costs of a design ideology that came to dominate twentieth-century traffic planning: the idea that pedestrians and vehicles must be physically segregated, with streets re-engineered as conduits for through traffic. Drawing on his work in a pedestrian movement consultancy, he traces the lineage from Herbert Alker Tripp's 1940s advocacy of "fencing off the perils" through the influential 1963 Buchanan report, and shows how the resulting guard-rails, underpasses and signalised crossings produce the opposite of what they promise. The casualties are not only the obvious ones — dislocated communities, dying high streets, declining walking, rising obesity — but the loss of streets themselves as places where everyday life happens. An invitation to question whether the segregated, single-use street is really the only way.

Chapters:

0:00 Title 0:05 Introduction 3:03 The consequences of bad street design 4:31 Planning for traffic 8:29 Reshaping our cities 12:44 Dangerous streets 17:16 The death of walking 22:04 Alternative solutions 25:11 Conclusion

First published in 2006 by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

A Critique of Nozick's Comments on Parental Obligations and Children's Rights Jun 07, 2026

Show notes

An AI narration of the article 'A Critique of Nozick's Comments on Parental Obligations and Children's Rights' by Jake Desyllas.

Robert Nozick's commentary on Locke's theory of homesteading contains two genuinely sharp insights into the problem of children's rights: that Locke's God-as-creator argument conceded the principle that children are ownable rather than refuting it, and that Locke's same move undermined any causal grounding for parental responsibility. Yet having identified the problem so clearly, Nozick refused to do the work of solving it — leaving the homework for someone else and, in later writing, drifting into shallow speculations about children as extensions of their parents. This essay walks through Nozick's insights, his refusal to put forward his own theory, and what his stance reveals about a philosopher who preferred clever exploration to firm conclusions.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 3:36 Nozick's First Insight: Locke Conceded That Children Are Ownable 4:36 Nozick's Second Insight: Locke Denied Causal Parental Responsibility 5:56 What Did Nozick Argue About Parental Obligations? 7:13 What Did Nozick Argue About Children's Rights? 10:19 Maybe Nozick Just Didn't Care

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/2/26/a-critique-of-nozicks-comments-on-parental-obligations-and-childrens-rights on 26 February 2025.

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