Although the public choice school of political economy has been demonized in a new work of putatively progressive fiction masquerading as intellectual history, good-faith leftists (if they don’t already regard themselves as libertarians) may be surprised by how their cause could benefit from the insights of James Buchanan, et al.
Tag: rules
On Property and Aggression
Rights are not metaphysical entities. No pathologist finds them during an autopsy. In a sense, they are conventions, but by that, I do not mean they are arbitrary. They are conventions much in the same way that David Hume saw the virtue of justice, which he equated with respect for property.
How Not to Change the World
Don’t run for class president. Don’t go to HOA meetings. Don’t join a committee. Don’t get involved in political campaigns. All of these activities are about reform. Get into the institution, play by its rules, and try to make it behave differently than it wants to. Forget this approach. It sucks. Here are four reasons why.
Law vs. “Laws”
Through experience, over long periods of time, humans discovered Natural Law, which illustrated how to live among others. Society grew as these rules were discovered, and eventually, this led to civilization growing from society. Then some “genius” came along and decided it would be a good idea to write down the Law somewhere so it could be read and referred to.
Healthcare: A House Divided Cannot Stand
I predict that the US government will adopt a “single-payer” healthcare system no later than 2030, and probably sooner. And while I oppose that outcome and believe its results will be far worse than a real free-market system would produce, I also suspect that those results will be better than the current half-fish, half-fowl, largely socialized but with fake “private” players sucking it dry, system.
Our Paranoid Society is Too Hard on Kids—and on Parents
Most of us who are, say, 50 or older, remember childhoods in which we were substantially free to wander within a reasonable distance of home. Our parents gave us rules, of course, but it was understood that roaming one’s community was part of the process of growing up. They didn’t worry about us unless we were late for dinner.
We Are the Economy They Want to Regulate
The question is not whether the market should be regulated, but who should regulate it. And the only two choices are: 1) market participants through the exercise of their free and peaceful choices or 2) politicians and bureaucrats relying on the threat of violence to impose their will.
A Small Glimpse of What Could Be
How many inventions weren’t invented, how many discoveries weren’t discovered, how many works of art–music, painting, whatever–were never made, because of the vast amounts of human time and energy that have been stolen by the giant parasite known as “government”?
The American Way of War
Contrary to popular misconception, the war state did not begin in 1945. From the start, war was an acceptable means to national policy ends, whether to open markets or to install friendly regimes. It’s a gross understatement to call this record shameful.
“He’s Just Being a Boy” II
In the last several years I have seen quite a few people critical of the phrase “boys will be boys.” While I will often agree with these people’s perspective on selected examples of shitty behavior … I think they misunderstand how the phrase has been generally used, and I think there is danger in how many of these people think.