Economist and Libertarian Theorist David Friedman support for the American Foreign Legion Proposal

David Director Friedman is an economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertarian theorist. He is known for his writings in market anarchist theory, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom (1973, revised 1989 and 2014). He has authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008). David Friedman is the son of economists Rose and Milton Friedman. His son, Patri Friedman, has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularly seasteading.

David Friedman commented on my proposal for a foreign legion for the United States in perpetual war.

I would prefer a foreign policy that didn’t get us into perpetual wars. But if we have them, there is something to be said for the proposal.

I offer one additional suggestion, inspired by the Roman example. A soldier who has served out a normal career in the foreign legion, say twenty years, gets U.S. citizenship when he retires. That should both lower the cost of the legion, since it’s an additional employment incentive, and provide benefits to both the existing citizens and the new ones.

Read more »