“While other individuals or institutions obtain their income by production of goods and services and by the peaceful and voluntary sale of these goods and services to others, the State obtains its revenue by the use of compulsion; that is, by the use and the threat of the jailhouse and the bayonet.”

American economist and political theorist

Murray Newton Rothbard was an American economist, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. He was a major figure in 20th-century American libertarianism and a founder and leading thinker of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote more than twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and related subjects. His work placed him at the center of debates over liberty, markets, and the role of the state.