A lot of people will never care about liberty. At all. They’ll never value it. Forget them. They are like rocks and trees on the landscape. They are scenery. Learn to navigate around them. Don’t go out of your way to kick them. That will only end up hurting you.
Tag: value
15,000 Hours of Playing School
As so often happens when we reach adulthood, and especially parenthood, we realize how much we don’t know. I realized that I might have been successfully schooled, but I didn’t feel well educated. When I reflect on the approximately 15,000 hours I spent in K-12 public school, I think of what a waste of time most of those hours were.
Political Action Exacerbates the Problem of Hate
Politics is your neighbor and his like-minded friends rallying together to lobby for government to shift their policies in their favor. If your neighbor and his friends hate intrusive government, those policy shifts may be a good thing for those who value peace and prosperity. But if your neighbor and his friends hate people wealthier than them, or people with a different skin color, those policy shifts are sure to bring about an exacerbated level of conflict, and thus a reduction in prosperity.
Tribalism and Economic Nationalism – Cut from the Same Cloth
Why would anyone underestimate the benefits of interacting with foreigners? It might be because they are, well, foreign. Combine this bias with an ignorance of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (spontaneous order) and a suspicion that exchange is zero-sum rather than positive-sum, and you have the making of an economic nationalist.
Economics Helps You Deal with Difficult People
You wake up to the realization that you have an important meeting in 30 minutes. You leap out of bed, throw some clothes on, grab your keys, and rush out the door. You’re halfway to your car when you see it.
It’s not a moment of zen, but of economics.
Somebody has slashed your tires.
Episode 077 – Jordan’s Journey (1h11m)
Episode 077 welcomes Jordan Vaughn Neal to the podcast to chat with Skyler about his journey to voluntaryism. Topics include: golf, the anarchy in cooperative games, Facebook discussions/debates, being Canadian and dual citizenship, public school in Canada, his parents’ careers, moving to the United States, complete disinterest in high school, LDS mission to East Germany and the libertarian seeds that were planted, his passion for computer science and programming, a Society Security law firm job he held, Stefan Molyneux’ influence on his libertarianism and peaceful parenting, the War on Drugs, overcoming biases, subjective theory of value and economic thinking, and his wife and his commitment to radical unschooling.
Public Education Vs. Public Schooling
The primary difference between public education and public schooling is that the former is openly accessible and self-directed, while the latter is compulsory and coercive. Both are community-based and taxpayer-funded; both can lead to an educated citizenry. But public education–like public libraries, public museums, public parks, community centers, and so on—can support the education efforts of individuals, families, and local organizations with potentially better outcomes than the static system of mass schooling.
Progressives Have Too Much Faith and Trust in Political Power
If you’re wealthy, that’s proof positive that you are taking advantage, or exploiting, those less wealthy than you. By definition. In every case. (Never mind their next best alternative is less desirable for them.) But here’s the rub: in order to fix wealth inequality, progressives are choosing to increase power inequality. And which is the greater threat to every income class of mankind?
War Crimes and the Long Run
In politics, the masses are highly impulsive. They favor whatever feels good at the moment; medium- and long-run effects are usually too dull and remote to contemplate. Elites, however, often want to claim the mantle of credibility – and deride their opponents’ short-sightedness.
Not Everyone is Worth Minimum Wage
Advocacy of any minimum wage is predicated on the economic ignorance that every employee’s value is worth at least that minimum. I was thinking on the drive home that a $15 minimum wage would apply to the two imbeciles who wasted my time this morning.