Austrian theory includes the concept of time preference, or the degree to which a person prefers current consumption over future consumption. During a lecture in his Money & Banking course, Hoppe hypothesized that, because they tend not to have children, children, old people and homosexuals tend to focus less on saving for the future. One of Hoppe's students characterized this statement as derogatory and a matter of opinion rather than fact. According to the
Chronicle of Higher Education:
In his lectures, Mr. Hoppe said that certain groups of people -- including small children, very old people, and homosexuals -- tend to prefer present-day consumption to long-term investment. Because homosexuals generally do not have children, Mr. Hoppe said, they feel less need to look toward the future. (In a recent talk at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which Mr. Hoppe says was similar to his classroom lecture, he declared, "Homosexuals have higher time preferences, because life ends with them.")
[The student], Mr. Knight found that argument unwarranted and obnoxious, and he promptly filed a complaint with the university. In a telephone interview on Saturday, Mr. Knight said: "I was just shocked and appalled. I said to myself, Where the hell is he getting this information from? I was completely surprised, and that's why I went to the university about this."
Hoppe's comments triggered an academic investigation which resulted in a "nondisciplinary" letter being issued February 9, 2005 instructing him to "cease mischaracterizing opinion as objective fact." The ACLU agreed to represent Hoppe, and he was defended in an editorial in the
The Rebel Yell, the UNLV student newspaper." Carol Harter, president of UNLV, in a February 18, 2005 letter said that "UNLV, in accordance with policy adopted by the Board of Regents, understands that the freedom afforded to Professor Hoppe and to all members of the academic community carries a significant corresponding academic responsibility. In the balance between freedoms and responsibilities, and where there may be ambiguity between the two, academic freedom must, in the end, be foremost." The "nondisciplinary" letter was removed from his personnel file. Hoppe's request for a one-year paid leave (sabbatical) and a letter of apology were denied.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has criticized remarks Hoppe made in his essay,
Natural Elites, Intellectuals, and the State.