Nationalism is, among other things, a gigantic aggregation error. It takes a huge, enormously diverse collection of people and imagines that each and every individual in the collection is somehow better than each and every individual in other nation-states. The more you think about it, the more idiotic it becomes.
Tag: ideology
On Sandboxes
Do you find it as difficult as I do to put your voluntaryist principles aside in order to engage with other people on questions of public policy? Here’s a metaphorical trick to make it easier: view every ideology as a sandbox.
The Siren of Democratic Fundamentalism
Every economics textbook explain how market outcomes can go wrong. Externalities. Monopoly. Asymmetric information. Irrationality. Democratic outcomes can easily go wrong for all the same reasons. Is it possible that Scandinavians simply underestimate the severity of the disincentives their policies generate?
On Equal Rights
Many a pundit and protestor demand equal rights for their various interested groups. I applaud and support such efforts on the basis that I too demand equal rights, for everyone. Where they misstep, I believe, is in their failure to distinguish groups from individuals.
Feminism is Not an Ideology
I have been in debates with many feminists. I have found one point quite powerful that I have often brought up, and I find it an interesting how feminists have responded to it. I believe it really highlights their psychological disposition and view of the world.
What Do Judges Maximize?
Public choice analysts did not develop a standard way of analyzing the actions of judges. For the most part, judges were simply ignored. Of course, if the judges were elected, they could be analyzed in the same way as any other elected officials, but in regard to appointed judges, especially those appointed for life terms, as the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are, public choice had little to say.
How To Be A Successful Edupreneur
Newsflash: Whether you run XYZ learning center or Nike, you are creating a value proposition for your clients that hinges on relationship-building and positive experiences. Relationships and positivity are not unique to non-profit edupreneurs. Clients are paying you for a product. This is a free-market exchange.
Has Trump Been Good for Libertarianism?
I saw someone post that Trump is the most libertarian president and there was a long thread of people debating this. I think this idea is super wrong, and likely a hard stance to defend. I don’t think any of my friends would take the challenge to try to defend Trump as a libertarian president. That being said. I think I will make a post of why I believe Trump provides the presidency that libertarians should love the most since, at least Nixon, but probably since Grover Cleveland.
The Voluntaryist Premise
Once a person adopts the label of voluntaryist (or the like) for their political identity, they assume, with good reason, the following premise: human suffering is terrible and should be prevented; aggression and coercion necessarily create human suffering. This premise leads the voluntaryist to hold a number of hypotheses with varying degrees of accuracy in some form or fashion within their minds at all times. Here are several of those hypotheses.
Regular Self-Interested Human Beings
There is a lot of debate on how liberty-minded people ought to handle personal association. Often this ends up being a point of angst and cognitive dissonance. I thought I would share some of my ideas on the matter.