States engage not only in conquest, plunder, and oppression, but also—in order to create conditions in which the populace is rendered less likely to resist a state’s abuses or rebel against it—in pervasive bamboozlement. Those who support the state ideologically tend to engage in chronic misrepresentation of what the state does and how it does it. So, not only war—the characteristic state action—but statism in general makes truth the first casualty of its claims, proposals, programs, and projects.
Tag: markets
The Classical Liberal is a Dreamer
Classical liberalism does not disavow the state. Indeed, it embraces and celebrates it, but only, the classical liberals insist, in the form of “limited government.” This regime, sustained by taxation, includes legislators who enact rules, executives who control police and armed forces to enforce the rules, and judges who settle disputes between persons and between persons and the state. In many versions it also includes active engagement in the construction and maintenance of public works (now often called infrastructure) and a system of government schools (now often with compulsory attendance). The classical liberal imagines that this setup will support free markets and more generally a free society and that it can be sustained indefinitely.
If You Build It They Won’t Come
This morning we ate breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana. You had to put your order in at an automated kiosk. But to take care of the people who were confused by these kiosks there was one cashier on duty to take manual orders. There were no people ordering at the kiosks. There were lines of people ordering from the cashier.
Privatize Veterans Affairs
Shulkin states that we can only expect our sons and daughters to risk lives when we promise to care for them when they return. Tell this to those who were conscripted into fighting in Vietnam. They were forced to fight regardless of the care situation back home.
On Socialism’s Rhetorical Appeal
Aside from the utter impossibility of attaining such abundance without private property and free markets, this vision has a fatal element of abstraction from the realities of the Iron Law of Oligarchy.
Advice to My Children, and Everyone Else
I’ve given this entire learning experience some thought over the last few days, and the following stanza sums up my principles nicely: Don’t hurt people. Don’t take their stuff. Don’t ask permission. This is the advice I will be giving and reinforcing in my children as opportunity arises, and its advice I give to the rest of humanity. Let’s dig deeper.
Market Info
I heard a radio report, as I recollect its gist, of a study which found that customers prefer NOT to be asked, “can I help you?” in a marketplace. That squares with my feelings as well. I prefer to see everything that is available, at my own pace, and then make my own reasoned choice.
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.
On ‘Wage Slavery’ and Word Games
Metaphors and language matter. If you see yourself as a slave, your imagination shrinks, and your sense of what’s possible declines. Verbiage associated with victimhood, etc. have a powerful self-enforcing tendency.
Capitalism vs. Socialism: Reply to Bruenig
Since Elizabeth Bruenig has posted her whole opening debate statement, I thought I’d reply point-by-point. She’s in blockquotes; I’m not. Before I get started, though, let me say that personally, Elizabeth seems a gracious and kind human being. Still, even if I were an avid socialist, I’d be baffled by the way she tackles the issue.