Courses

Andrew D. Allison

Andrew Allison is a graduate philosophy student studying business ethics at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on the rights of creditors in the banking industry. Specifically, he is interested in how the obligations that banks have to depositors are transformed when depositors are conceived of as creditors and how this affects ethical managerial practices during bank runs.

Blog Posts

Minimum wage laws deny low-skilled workers their autonomy

March 20, 2023
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Basic Economics

Minimum wage laws are horrible. Low-skilled workers are thrown out of work if they cannot produce more than the minimum wage stipulates. If the minimum wage is $15/hour and a worker can only produce $13/hour worth of goods, they will not be hired since no profit-seeking employer would employ someone at a loss. Compulsory unemployment: Rothbard’s take on minimum wage laws American economist and philosopher Murray Rothbard gave a blunt rebuttal of minimum wage laws: “In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment,

Murray Rothbard’s unwavering commitment to peace

March 2, 2023
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Civil Liberties

In an unpublished letter from 1959 to Kenneth S. Templeton, the now-famous libertarian economist, philosopher, and historian, Murray Rothbard wrote, “I am getting more and more convinced that the war-peace question is the key to the whole libertarian business.”  And key this question remained for Rothbard. Although he worked with a number of different coalitions across the political spectrum throughout his career, Rothbard never wavered in his answer, which was always ‘peace.’ Rothbard and the American Old Right In 1946, Rothbard joined the American

Zora Neale Hurston: a genius of the south and anti-imperialist voice

March 30, 2021
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Role of Government

In 1973, novelist Alice Walker wrote the epitaph for Zora Neale Hurston after her grave remained unmarked for thirteen years. It read as follows: ZORA NEALE HURSTON “A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH” NOVELIST FOLKLORIST ANTHROPOLOGIST 1901-1960 All three titles are apt. Born in Alabama in 1891 (as opposed to 1901) and raised in Florida, Hurston was a novelist during the Harlem Renaissance and an anthropologist of Hoodoo in the American South. Once her writing was recovered by Walker, her genius was recognized and she “shortly became the most canonized black