Courses

Jack Nicastro

Local Coordinator

Students For Liberty

Jack is a sophomore at Dartmouth College majoring in Economics and minoring in Philosophy. He is the Director of Programming for the Dartmouth Libertarians, a local coordinator for Students for Liberty, student assistant to Professors Henry Clark and Meir Kohn of the Political Economy Project, and a contributing writer to The Review. He has interned for the American Institute for Economic Research, leads the American Enterprise Institute’s Executive Council on his campus, and is currently interning at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. In his free time, he enjoys physical fitness, podcasts, and reading. Jack is from Brooklyn, NY and graduated with honors from The Bronx High School of Science.

Blog Posts

Why libertarians oppose fraud — in 300 words

April 4, 2022
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Free Will and Moral Responsibility

Libertarians believe in negative rights. The foundation of these is the idea that others cannot infringe on your autonomy via the use of physical force: coercion.  Different schools of libertarianism justify this right against coercion in a variety of ways: some believe that it’s a God-given right; others believe it is a natural right; and there are others still who believe that it’s validated by the positive consequences it yields for individuals and society. Regardless as to the diverse libertarian justifications for negative rights, one is decidedly not a

How do we justify property rights?

March 25, 2022
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Basic Economics

Market economies and free trade are both cornerstones of modern society. It’s hard to argue with the data — even skeptics of capitalism acknowledge the far-reaching benefits we have all enjoyed.  What’s more difficult to argue is the concept of property rights. Even though markets and free trade are wholly contingent on this concept, people often feel they’re somehow unfair. The idea of excluding others from something on the planet seems unjust on principle to many. But there are plenty of reasons why this isn’t so. John Locke and David Hume are the two classic thinkers who provided

Just war; unjust conscription

March 24, 2022
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Civil Liberties

The leaders and concerned citizens around the world are correct: Russian aggression is illegitimate, and Ukraine is presently engaged in a just war of self-defense.  My heart, like so many others, goes out to the millions of displaced Ukrainians whose country’s sovereignty has been flagrantly violated by Vladimir Putin and his forces. One only has to casually survey the huge number of photos, videos, and audio recordings of Ukrainian solidarity, perseverance, and defensive exercise of force to be inspired.   The Ukrainians who confront Russian soldiers are

Why free speech is good ― in 300 words

February 18, 2022
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Free Speech

Freedom of speech is a bedrock of libertarian thought, but why do we bother to defend it? Is free expression only an instrumental good, i.e., good because it results in good consequences? Or is it intrinsically good, in and of itself? The answer is both.  Free speech is instrumental to revealing the truth through open dialogue.  When Cathy Newman famously asked Jordan Peterson why his right to speak freely is more legitimate than somebody’s “right” not to be offended, he responded that risking offense is a necessary condition of reaching this truth. Ok,