Category: Economics and Liberty

I just got back from a month in the UK, working for the John Locke Institute‘s two summer schools.  The morning before I left, I delivered my talk on “The Economics of Antipathy and Stereotyping.” In the subsequent Q&A, one of the students asked (roughly), “But shouldn’t we try to rectify past injustices that caused present-day differences in worker productivity?”  Since I wasn’t satisfied with my answer at the time, here are the three key points I wish I’d made.

In my “Knowledge, Reality, and Value” Book Club, I focus on my disagreements with Huemer, even though I agree with the vast majority of what the book says.  Recently, however, he wrote a separate piece that I disagree with almost entirely, entitled “Two Taxes that Aren’t Theft.”  Using Huemer’s common-sense approach to ethics, I say that he’s deeply mistaken on both counts.

I often rail against Social Desirability Bias, our all-too-human tendency to lie when the truth sounds bad.  Critics occasionally treat my railing as thinly-veiled ideology: I dismiss non-libertarian rhetoric as “mere Social Desirability Bias,” while treating libertarian rhetoric as objective truth. To clear the air, then, let me bluntly state that most libertarian rhetoric is […]

The post Libertarian SDB appeared first on Econlib.

Like Sullivan, I am well-aware aware that human beings routinely claim to place supreme value on culture, identity, community, and so on.  Unlike Sullivan, however, I refuse to take such hyperbolic claims at face value. Actions really do speak louder than words.  And the vast majority of people who claim to place supreme value on culture, identity, or community show otherwise with their deeds.