In an interview, Block stated, "In the fifties and sixties, I was just another commie living in Brooklyn." Block credits his shift to libertarianism to his having attended a lecture by Ayn Rand while he was an undergraduate student. Block later attended a luncheon with Rand, Nathaniel Branden, and Leonard Peikoff at which Branden suggested that Block read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. He says that the final push to his conversion came from having met Austrian School and anarcho-capitalist theorist Murray Rothbard. While Block is an anarcho-capitalist and, unlike the Objectivist followers of Ayn Rand, ultimately opposed to limited or minimal government, and even while criticizing her movement as "cultish", Block still describes himself as "a big fan" of Rand and considers Atlas Shrugged to be "the best novel ever written."[bettersourceneeded]
From 1979 to 1991, Block was the senior economist with the Fraser Institute. He was also a senior fellow at the think-tank Ludwig von Mises Institute from 2000 to 2024, where he published various blog posts, papers, and books.
Block has written two dozen books. He is best known for his 1976 book Defending the Undefendable. The book has been translated into ten foreign languages. Fox Business Channel pundit John Stossel wrote that Block's "eye-opening" book inspired him to see that economics "illuminates what common sense overlooks."
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.
Slavery and civil rights in the United States
A January 2014 article in the New York Times said Block "suggested in an interview that the daily life of the enslaved was 'not so bad – you pick cotton and sing songs.'" The piece also reported that Block said Woolworth's had the right to exclude black people from its lunch counters, asserting that "no one is compelled to associate with people against their will." Block responded to the article by accusing the Times of libel for taking quotes out of context and claiming the latter quote was not accurate. In his response, he called slavery "depraved and monstrous" while arguing that it is not the nature of the work slaves perform that makes slavery monstrous, but rather it is the fact that they are forced to perform it and are not free to leave. According to Block's argument, forcing a slave to perform pleasant tasks would be no less monstrous because it equally violates the libertarian non-aggression principle. An Inside Higher Ed piece noted that, in response to the story, seventeen faculty members at Block's university publicly called for him to be censured for his "recurring public attacks ... on the civil rights of all." The piece also reported that Reverend Kevin Wildes, the President of Block's university, took the "unusual step" of publicly critiquing his arguments as fallacious. As part of a settlement to the lawsuit, The New York Times agreed to add the following Editor's Note to the article: "An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the views of Walter Block on slavery. While Mr. Block has said that the daily life of slaves was "not so bad," he opposes slavery because it is involuntary, and he believes reparations should be paid."
Pay gap for black people and women
In a 2008 lecture Block called "Injustices in the Politics and Economics of Social Justice" presented at the invitation of the Adam Smith Society of the economics department of Loyola College, Baltimore Block said "blacks and women" were paid less than whites because they are "less productive".
In the lecture, Block defended his views on women saying among younger and unmarried women, there is virtually no income disparity. When asked by an attendee to explain the difference in productivity between blacks and whites, he said that as an economist he was not qualified to explain the disparity. Block offered two thoughts that might account for the disparity: first, what he called the "politically correct" explanation, or socioeconomic disparities and historical injustices towards blacks; for the second thought, which he calls the "political incorrect", he refers to R. Herrnstein and C. Murray's book "The Bell Curve".
James Gill wrote in the Times-Picayune that the lecture "ignited a furor", resulting in the president of the university, Brian F. Linnane, apologizing for what was taken as a "sexist and racist outburst", with Gill opining that, "ideas contrary to fashionable preconceptions are always likely to throw academia into a fit".
Perhaps almost as notable as the president's direct response was the condemnation issued jointly by the college's economics department and the Adam Smith Society ... "It is important to note that the remark was offensive not just because it was racially insensitive, but because it was erroneous and indicated poor-quality scholarship. There is ample scholarly evidence that, after adjusting for productivity-related characteristics (e.g., years of schooling, work experience, union and industry status, etc.) a considerable wage gap remains."
According to Block's moral theory, the act of abortion must be conceptually separated into the acts of the eviction of the fetus from the womb, and the killing of the fetus. Building on the libertarian stand against trespass and murder, Block supports a right to the first act, but, except in certain circumstances, not the second act. Block believes the woman may legally abort if the fetus is not viable outside the womb, or the woman has announced to the world her abandonment of the right to custody of the fetus, and no one else has "homesteaded" that right by offering to care for the fetus.
Homesteading
Blockean Proviso
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. He 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.
Block has theorized on whether a person acting in self-defense can harm a human shield or hostage used by an aggressor. 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. Block calls this "negative homesteading theory".
Foreign policy
On April 13, 2026, Block gave his support for the U.S. war against Iran in an article co-written with James Delmore.
Animal rights
Block believes that the libertarian non-aggression principle does not apply to animals and that the right of human owners to kill, torture, or otherwise abuse animals may be an unavoidable corollary of libertarian premises. He 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.
↑Chana, Jas (August 20, 2015). "Straight Outta Brooklyn, by Way of Vermont: The Bernie Sanders Story". The Tablet. Archived from the original on February 12, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016. At James Madison, Bernie Sanders was a talented athlete and a natural leader. Block recalled how the high school's freshmen would look up to him during their senior year track sessions.
12"Walter Block"(PDF). WalterBlock.com (Curriculum vitae). p.2. Archived from the original(PDF) on August 19, 2019.
↑"Walter Block"(PDF) (Curriculum vitae). sections on Articles Published in Refereed Journals and Reference Works. Archived from the original(PDF) on August 19, 2019.
↑"Walter Block"(PDF). WalterBlock.com (Curriculum vitae). p.1. Archived from the original(PDF) on August 19, 2019.
↑Murphy, Robert P. (2006). "A Note on Walter Block's Defending the Undefendable". American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 65 (2): 463–467. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2006.00459.x. ISSN1536-7150. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021. Walter Block's amusing and popular Defending the Undefendable offers an intentionally shocking collection of short chapters, each praising a different "rogue" of modern society
↑Carden, Art (August 22, 2020). "Happy Birthday to Libertarian Firebrand Walter Block". independent.org. Oakland, California: Independent Institute. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021. As befits someone who is probably best known for a book titled Defending the Undefendable, Block is no stranger to controversy.
↑Block, Walter (2011). "The Human Body Shield"(PDF). Journal of Libertarian Studies. 22: 625–630. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 10, 2013.
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