Episode 107 welcomes Alex Voss to the podcast for a chat with Skyler. Topics include: living in Chicago and Cincinnati, Serbia and the international opinion of the Clintons, economic traditions (Chicago, Austrian), philosophical journeys, good and bad laws, his libertarian influences, his career in legal risk mitigation in the healthcare industry, the importance of economic knowledge, getting married and starting a family, and more.
Tag: family
Immigration Enforcement: Just as Bad for Americans as it is for Immigrants
The whole idea of “immigration enforcement” is bad for immigrants and natives alike. It violates the rights of both groups while damaging the American economy and making us all poorer. These agencies and their activities are a repudiation of America itself. Time to de-fund and eliminate them.
Unschooling and Grit
At a friend’s birthday party this weekend, the topic of unschooling came up. After I had explained, thoroughly I thought, that we don’t replicate school-at-home, that we learn in and from our daily life in the city, that the children’s interests guide their learning, that we live as if school doesn’t exist, the person paused and asked: “So do you give them exams?”
Alternatives to the Welfare State
In my last article, I discussed how the U.S. is a welfare state, what that means, and how it violates the principles of Freedom and Responsibility. However, one might ask how those currently on welfare would survive without the welfare state. It’s a valid question.
Ansel Adams Was Unschooled; How to Solve America’s Creativity Crisis
Ansel’s father recognized his son’s natural exuberance and determined that Ansel needed more freedom to thrive. When Ansel was 12, his father removed him from school and homeschooled him, granting him abundant freedom and opportunity to pursue his own interests and passions. At home, Ansel learned to play the piano, becoming a professional musician before devoting his life to photography.
How I Try to Help Crypto Without Being a Techie
I’ve been in love with crypto and its world-shaking potential since I first heard about it around 2012. I bought some Bitcoin not long after, and was always excited for an excuse to use it or give it away. I was in it for the philosophy and potential to expand human freedom and prosperity, not really as an investment vehicle.
On Noprofits and Risk
For the people who work there, nonprofits are a wonderful, dangerous vacation from the feedback of reality. They provide a sort of cushy anti-moral hazard, where people take less risk than they would if they faced direct market feedback from customers. An environment like that is good at slowly stagnating or even corroding the human spirit, as safety nets tend to do. Be careful.
Warning: Dangerous Cult!
This is a serious warning to all parents about a nefarious and very dangerous cult that has recently been approaching and recruiting innocent but ignorant souls, enticing them into joining a very violent gang—which is really more of a cult than a mere gang. This cult has been responsible for countless murders, acts of terrorism, and many other forms of violence. And the members of the cult have been so brainwashed that they view their violent aggression against innocents as being righteous and noble, because they have been taught that such actions are for the common good, because they serve the religious “vision” of the group’s leaders, which involves coercing everyone else into blind obedience to the agenda and decrees of the leaders of the group, and into compliance with their view of how everyone and everything should be.
Walk Out and Don’t Go Back
Today, students across America will join in a national school walkout day to memorialize the 17 people tragically killed in the recent Parkland, Florida school shooting and to advocate for stricter gun control laws. But what if they don’t go back?
Watching Children Learn Naturally
Watching children learn naturally, while following their own interests, is nothing short of astonishing. It shouldn’t be, of course. We shouldn’t be surprised that giving children freedom and autonomy, and trusting them to pursue passions most meaningful to them, would lead to deep and lasting learning. But Self-Directed Education is so rare in our widely schooled society that most of us don’t get the opportunity to see what learning without schooling (including school-at-home) looks like. Self-Directed Education, or unschooling, is strikingly different from schooling–in all of its various iterations.