The latest issue of the Tom Woods Letter, which all the influential people read. Subscribe for free and receive my eBook Our Enemy, The Fed as a gift.

I know what you’re going to say: Woods, a “libertarian socialist” is a contradiction in terms!

I know. Believe me.

But a Libertarian Socialist Caucus believes otherwise.

Now on some level, who really cares?

But on another, this is too much fun not to comment on.

One of the most outspoken members of that caucus recently posted what you see below:

Let’s unpack this.

TANSTAAFL is a basic libertarian and economic principle. In a world of scarcity, nothing is without cost. If resources are deployed in one way, they are not available to be deployed in another.

So when the state boasts of its great works, it is of course leaving out the cost — the things that would have been produced had the necessary resources not been siphoned off for the state’s project.

TANSTAAFL, therefore, merely restates the central insight of Frederic Bastiat, the nineteenth-century French thinker admired by libertarians everywhere. It was he who explained this principle with clarity and eloquence in “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen.”

We see the much-trumpeted state project. We do not see — except, perhaps, with our mind’s eye — the foregone goods and services that, as a direct result of this project, never see the light of day.

There are many reasons that Americans could stand to be reminded of this principle in this day and age, particularly with so many of them thinking they can costlessly vote themselves wealth via the state.

Not to mention: the war in Iraq seemed “free” to most people. The tax burden did not appreciably change during that war. If people believe the illusion that they can have wars for free, we will surely have more of them.

Now everything I’ve said up to this point is perfectly reasonable, is it not? And surely if these are not principles that libertarians would embrace, what else would be?

Our “libertarian socialist” disagrees.

Why, the TANSTAAFL principle is tailor made for “racists, misogynists, and Social Darwinists”!

Go back and re-read what I wrote about it.

He thinks those ideas are for white supremacists. The ones I just told you about. Those.

So I don’t think we’re missing out on much without this fellow — who says he’ll now move on to the Socialist Party and the Green Party.

A general rule: the second someone accuses you of being a “white supremacist,” you can assume you are dealing with a mental defective, or a smear artist.

And when someone accuses libertarianism itself as being a tool of white supremacism, mute him. Do not engage. You are dealing with low-grade mental illness.

Meanwhile:

Two things “libertarian socialists” know nothing about are economics and wealth.

A fantastic new documentary, which for a limited time costs nothing to watch (yes, I appreciate the irony of my promoting this within a TANSTAAFL email), features a bunch of our folks — smart libertarians, who have also been financially successful.

They discuss how they achieved success, and then what they did with the dough once they earned it.

There are way too many broke libertarians out there.

We should all watch this.

It features Tom Woods Show guests Ryan Daniel Moran and Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock.com), as well as Whole Foods CEO John Mackey andRich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki.

They’re making it available to get in at no cost until the premiere tonight (Tuesday, April 23), so sign up to get access:

http://www.tomwoods.com/smackers