Blackmail and Capitalism

A piece in The New Yorker this week analyzes the philosophical conundrum behind blackmail in light of the recent Letterman case.  The main argument, as stated by economist Walter Block, is:

…blackmail, like smoking, is “yucky” but should be legal. “He only threatened to be a gossip—maybe a screenwriter,” he said of Halderman. “Screenwriting and gossiping are legal. If it’s legal to do it, it should be legal to threaten to do it.”

As stated in the article, Marxists compared capitalism to blackmail in that everyone is trying to buy someone else off, trying to get someone to either perform some legal action or not perform that action.  If that action is, say prostitution, people feel - often inexplicably - that it is morally unjust to pay someone to prostitute him/herself.  I think it’s mostly the same with blackmail, there isn’t a real philosophical justification but more of just a moral disgust with the idea, especially when you think about applying the Golden Rule.