This episode features a discussion with economics professor Walter Williams from 2015. Throughout history, personal liberty, free markets, and peaceable, voluntary exchanges have been roundly denounced by tyrants and often greeted with suspicion by the general public. Unfortunately, argues Dr. Williams, Americans have increasingly accepted the tyrannical ideas of reduced private property rights and reduced rights to profits, and have become enamored with restrictions on personal liberty and control by government.
Tag: property
Skyler J. Collins vs. Richard D. Wolff on Capitalism and Socialism (47m) – Episode 433
Episode 433 has Skyler responding to claims and arguments made by Richard Wolff in debates with David Friedman and Gene Epstein. Topics include: Wolff’s debate tactic of feigning ignorance; Wolff’s definitions of capitalism and socialism; the concept of self-ownership; the concept of private property from original appropriation; how private firms can be organized; capitalism as a concept verse markets as a concept; and more.
Private Charity Beats One-Size-Fits-All Government
Charities are free to help people who truly need help.
Peter Hill: The Not So Wild, Wild West, Property Rights on the Frontier (48m)
This episode features a lecture by economics professor emeritus Peter J. Hill from 2016. Hill looks at the development of property rights across the American West in the 19th century.
Be Grateful for Capitalism This Thanksgiving
If government controlled the production of turkeys and toilet paper, this would be a very unhappy holiday.
Mask Mandates: COVID-19 and the Law of the Instrument
“One day after the state reported a record 92 COVID-19-related deaths,” the Wisconsin State Journal‘s Mitchell Schmidt reports, “Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday he plans to extend the state’s emergency declaration and accompanying mask mandate through mid-January. … The current mask mandate was issued in July and extended by Evers in September.” The first two mask mandates didn’t achieve the desired result! Something must be done! Hey, I’ve got an idea! How about another mask mandate?
Hey Tough Guy, I Call BS; They Will Take Your Guns from Warm Compliant Hands
For many years I have heard the tired old comments about government agents prying guns from cold dead hands. I recall a man with 300 partners on a mountain pass once said something similar, but he demonstrated through his actions that he actually meant it. I don’t think YOU really mean it. Your contemporary bravado is fine if we accept it for what it is. In truth, are YOU really THAT resolute & tough?
Freedom and Benefit, Toxic Workplace, Tax Avoidance, & Capitalist Ideology (25m) – Episode 422
Episode 422 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/shitstatistssay: DizzFizz writes, “It’s interesting to see how a lot of US-citizens will bend over backwards in order to argue against something that would only benefit them, simply because of ‘freedom'”; anonymous writes, “What your niece did is right, it just unfortunately means you (and workers) suffered.”; bickerstaff writes, “Reagan ruined this country. By creating the notion (now foundational to the GOP) that government was not the solution, but the problem, he gave birth to the modern ‘starve the beast’ movement that is currently the largest problem in politics: tax avoidance.”; Pascal Morimacil writes, “Capitalism is… a system of government granted monopolies called private property.”
Make Nice with Your Neighbors
I want people to get along. I would prefer if they focused on real things instead of political things. There are enough real problems in the world without being political and creating problems from nothing.
Scarcity and Property Rights & Involuntary Celibacy (22m) – Episode 417
Episode 417 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: an article he wrote in August 2011 titled, “Scarcity and Property Rights”; and an article he wrote in May 2018 titled, “Involuntarily Celibate: Clever Rhetorical Trick”.