25 Facts About Walter Block

Walter Edward Block was born on August 21,1941 and is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist.

Walter Block was the Harold E Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola University New Orleans and a former senior fellow of the non-profit think-tank Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

Walter Block was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents Abraham Block, a certified public accountant, and Ruth Block, a paralegal, both of whom Block has said were liberals.

Walter Block attended James Madison High School, where Bernie Sanders was on his track team.

Walter Block later attended a luncheon with Rand, Nathaniel Branden, and Leonard Peikoff at which Branden suggested that Walter Block read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

Walter Block says that the final push to his conversion came from having met Austrian School and anarcho-capitalist theorist Murray Rothbard.

Walter Block taught at the University of Central Arkansas, Holy Cross College, Baruch College and Rutgers University.

Walter Block now holds the Harold E Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the Butt College of Business, Loyola University, in New Orleans.

From 1979 to 1991, Walter Block was the senior economist with the Fraser Institute.

Walter Block was a senior fellow at the think-tank Ludwig von Mises Institute from 2000 to 2024, where he has published various blog posts, papers, and books.

Walter Block is best known for his 1976 book Defending the Undefendable.

Walter Block believes that people should have the legal right to sell themselves into slavery, or to buy and keep slaves who have sold themselves into slavery, in a libertarian legal order.

Walter Block says government management of roads and highways is not only inefficient, but deadly.

Walter Block argues that "road socialism" causes the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the United States each year.

And, although many people blame highway deaths on alcohol, unsafe vehicles, or speeding, Walter Block lays the blame on the government officials who manage the highway system.

Walter Block has written about punishment of those engaging in "statist, governmental or other gangster activity".

Walter Block argues there should be "a presumption that all government employees are guilty of a crime against humanity," though he notes that this presumption can be rebutted in many cases, such as that of US Congressman and Mises Institute Senior Fellow Ron Paul.

Walter Block describes rules by which libertarian "Nuremberg Trials" might operate.

Walter Block has written on finding a compromise between those who believe stem cell research is murder and those who favor it.

Walter Block applies a libertarian theory of private property rights to his premise that even fertilized eggs have human rights and that the relevant issues are competition between researchers and those who wish to adopt the eggs.

Walter Block argues that if property is "necessary" for others to use, to get to unowned property, they have an easement over it and compared it to a person who murders a child without feeding it.

Walter Block cites the example of a person with donut shaped land who doesn't allow anyone to get to the middle of his land as incompatible with the logic of homesteading.

Walter Block has theorized on whether a person acting in self-defense can harm a human shield or hostage used by an aggressor.

Walter Block holds this is legitimate because the human shield is the first victim of the aggressor and, as such, cannot be allowed to pass on their misery to the defending person, the intended second victim of the aggressor.

Walter Block articulated this position in a 2017 debate on animal rights, maintaining that groups must be able to petition for rights and respect the rights of others in order to qualify for rights themselves.