If the problem is real and the government undertakes to solve it, the result in nearly every case will be that special interests, especially the government itself, will be further empowered and enriched and, on top of this insult to justice and prosperity, the real problem will be made worse rather than solved, setting in motion further calls for government intervention and creating an endless chain of action and reaction leading toward a leviathan state.
Tag: intervention
Economic Nationalism: Elitism in Populist Clothing
My old friend and former “American Conservative” editor Dan McCarthy gets it all wrong about Donald Trump’s “national security” tariffs on aluminum and steel.
Information That Matters
Paul Saffo remarked that Samuel Johnson identified two types of information, that which you knew and that which you knew how to get. Saffo continues that in light of the Internet, Worldwide Web, and technology, we are now cursed with a glut of information, so we need a third type of information — that which matters.
The Idea of Trust
“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.” — Martha Nussbaum
Inconsistent Conservative Interventionists
With the recent news about North Korea and South Korea uniting for the Olympics and perhaps further diplomatic discussions, I am reminded of the (numerous) inconsistencies of the supposedly conservative, free-market neocons. Here is one in particular: These folks often believe in the market rather than a central planner and at the same time believe the communist government of North Korea is an existential threat to the US.
“Peace Through Strength” Is a Racket
“I’m going to make our military so big, so powerful, so strong, that nobody — absolutely nobody — is gonna to mess with us,” Trump says. On other occasions he’s said similar things: “We want to defer, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength” (same link) and, a year ago, “Nobody is going to mess with us. Nobody. It will be one of the greatest military build-ups in American history.”
Raining on the Parade
Some people have proposed that Trump’s parade be postponed until all the wars the U.S. government is waging are finished and the troops are back home. That would indeed be an indefinite postponement, and I wouldn’t want to see a parade even then. But if that’s the price for ending those imperial wars, I’ll take it.
Property and Self
It seems to me that this is a central economic question confronting the human species, but to resolve it is to put statist and interventionist footprints all over the question. Voluntaryists are stuck on the fence of believing the resolution while being restricted in implementing much of its implications.
Delusions of Godhood
What should be the qualities of water? How should DNA be built? How should snowflakes be designed? Who should be in charge of flocks of birds or schools of fish?
On Getting Libertarianism Wrong
One of my mentors and favorite libertarian theorists, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, has once again gotten it dangerously wrong on libertarianism.