On this page, I will assemble some questions I'm often wondering about. For the moment, there are just some opinion snippets, without any explanation.
Politically, I lie somewhere between a libertarian and an anarcho-capitalist. That is, I value individual liberties absolutely and above all. Furthermore, I sincerely believe that private property rights are the key to freedom and responsibility. On the other hand, I'm convinced that the idea of intellectual property is completely mistaken and harmful and strongly oppose any form of patents or copyright.
While personal freedom and responsibility are obviously linked, and all citizens shall have the same rights, it is not always clear how to apply this in practice. Do parents have full responsibility for their children? If so, don't they need absolute authority on their upbringing, including education? How can we protect children against parental abuse, without restricting the family's freedom, e.g. through compulsory school attendance. Similarly, is abortion a crime? This question is hard, even if ignore all moral or religious aspects. Consider pregnancies constituting a risk for the mother's health or of rape victims. If parents are unable to take of their children, can they be forbidden to further reproduce?
If the market is so efficient in providing us with goods and services, can we rely on it for protection and justice? If not, what quality does a state government have in addition, that allows for a monopoly of force? Who will protect the rights of the poor and unskilled? What can we achieve through voluntary taxation? Can we ever declare any positive rights, i.e. claims, without violating the already existing negative rights of individual liberties? Should there be any public funding or spending, e.g. in education, research, health care, arts or sports, at all? How is it different from compulsory consumption and paternalism? Who knows what is best for us? Why can't we simply exchange goods and services in mutual agreement, without third parties interfering? Why is there a monopoly on money? Are counter-economics immoral or illegal? What do we do about collectivist ideas like wars between nations, national borders and conscription? Is interdependence between different nations a guarantee for peace or rather an invitation to oppression and exploitation? Why are we saving failing corporations? Isn't limited liability a short-sighted idea with obvious catastrophic consequences?
Is it possible to do good scientific research using proprietary software as black-box tools? Clearly, we can't rely on them for mathematical proofs (and withholding details), how easy does it have to reproduce experimental results in other fields? (Actually, there exceptions to this: When solving linear programs, for example, it's possible to produce provably optimal solutions using duality theory, even without disclosing all computational details.)
In the end, doesn't freedom just mean having nothing left to lose?