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Congressman Paul’s unfortunate newsletters should not blind us to the deeper message of his candidacy.
Archive for the ‘Libertarianism’ Category
November 15th, 2011
Libertarians and conservatives have become fond of calling the individual mandate totalitarian-or at least a gross and unconscionable deprivation of individual liberty. But if so, why are they so comfortable with the prospect of courts finding it unconstitutional only when the *federal* government imposes it?
October 2nd, 2011
Hit & Run’s Tim Cavanaugh to “unemployees”: if you don’t like being discriminated against in job searches, get a job before you start.
July 1st, 2011
Category: Anti-atheist bigotry, Libertarianism
We should by all means inform people about all the reasons Ayn Rand’s philosophy is distasteful. That she didn’t believe in God is, pace the “American Values Network,” not one of them.
June 15th, 2011
Category: Energy and Environment, Libertarianism
Libertarians often say that public lands should be handed over to the private sector, which has an incentive to conserve them. But doesn’t the same logic that leads them to hate teachers’ unions also imply that forest rangers will do anything to preserve the forests that provide their cushy jobs?
February 17th, 2011
Can the assertion “Government is too big [or too small]” ever mean enough to support a serious conversation, much less a policy decision? How about “California [or the US; plug in your own jurisdiction larger than a small town] can’t afford [plug in a program]“? What could such statements mean, or be shorthand for?
February 6th, 2011
Category: Affordable Care Act, Libertarianism
Judge Roger Vinson calls the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, citing (among other things) this ReasonTV video.
February 4th, 2011
Category: Libertarianism, Rhetoric and Framing
Many libertarian ideas are worthy of respect, or at least attention. That massive policy change can be contrasted with “politics” is not one of them.
January 6th, 2011
Category: Libertarianism
Years ago, when I was first teaching environmental policy, my students correctly pointed out that I was serving a neoclassical theory of it with externalities, Pigovian taxes, and all that good stuff, and they wanted to know the “radical” theory. Fair enough; I asked my most lefty colleagues to tell me the Marxist theory of [...]
December 28th, 2010
Zombie idea department: the “natural market distribution.”
