According to the late political philosopher Anthony de Jasay, the modern state is a “redistributive drudge …. If its ends are such that they can be attained by devoting its subjects’ resources to its own purposes, its rational course is to maximize its discretionary power over these resources. In the ungrateful role of drudge, however, it uses all its power to stay in power, and has no discretionary power left over.” How much discretionary power does the federal government exercise over your resources?
Tag: politics
Reflections from Spain
I just got back from a five-week visit to Spain. The first four weeks, I was teaching labor economics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín while my sons took Spanish-language classes on Islamism, Self-Government, and the Philosophy of Hayek. Then we rented a van and saw Cordoba, Seville, Gibraltar, Fuengirola, Granada, and Cuenca.
Alice Miller: Childhood, The Unexplored Source of Knowledge (28m)
This episode features an audio essay written by psychologist and psychoanalyst Alice Miller in 2007, which comprises Chapter 25 of Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting, edited by Skyler J. Collins and published in 2012. She explores childhood as a source of understanding tyranny and violence.
Time To Roast The Peacock
What amazes me is the amount of effort this “news organization” is putting towards trashing Trump. The contrast with the way they treated Obama makes this even more obvious. And disgusting.
Yes, They’re Concentration Camps
In America, concentration camps date to at least as early as the 1830s, when US troops rounded up Cherokee natives and confined them in such camps before forcing them west along the Trail of Tears. If you’re rounding up large numbers of people and concentrating them in camps, you’re operating concentration camps. Period.
£s for Brexit
Since I think that Brexit is a bad idea, why am I telling its advocates how to proceed? Because I know Brexiteers won’t listen – and even if they did, the EU wouldn’t budge. While I can understand the failures of politics, I have near-zero ability to solve them. Not coincidentally, this is precisely what my view predicts.
Libertarianism is The Balance
One objection I frequently see against libertarianism is that it’s “too extreme”. “There needs to be a balance between the extremes of libertarianism and fascism” (as illustrated by “border enforcement” and so forth).
Opposition Research: It’s Not Trump’s Fault That Politics is a “Dirty” Game
In a June 12 interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, President Donald Trump freely admitted that he would listen to foreigners offering him “dirt” on his political opponents: “I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening …. Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,’ do you call the FBI?”
“Politics Awaits”
When you watch Inglourious Basterds, Goebbels’ reaction to Fredrick’s appeal seems obvious, even banal. Why? Because Goebbels is speaking like a generic politician, not a Nazi. And when he does so, we all nod, because deep down we know the ugly truth that demagoguery rules the world. We’re just afraid to say it.
No One Should Control Others’ Choices
You have the right to not gamble and the right to defend against crime (even though government tries to ration this right). What you don’t have is the right to threaten to use the violence of government to force your opinions on others. Even when politics is normalized to the point it seems this is a legitimate right, it isn’t.