Markets Are Not Magic
Mark Thoma, at Economist's View, explains when markets can perform very badly, and how the belief that "privatization and deregulation are always best" is wrong.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The "What's New" blog for the Critiques Of Libertarianism website.
4 comments:
Left libertarians certainly don't believe privatization, as popularly understood, is a solution to anything. State property is not legitimately owned; therefore, the State has no power to transfer it. Nor is the State likely to be fair in privatization, favoring politically connected "crony capitalists" rather than acknowledging the equity, tax-funded shared ownership of the people.
The difference between liberals and left libertarians is that we don't think the State can be made into a fair and proper manager of commonly owned resources. The difference between conservatives and left libertarians is that we soundly reject the concept of the State as a steward for the ruling class's less directly owned property, whether that is implied or explicit in political practices. This is why radical libertarians like Murray Rothbard called for the syndicalist takeover of government services (and private businesses who profit off of government contracts) by the workers via straight-up Lockean homesteading.
If you're going to use the term "libertarian", at least acknowledge that there is more variety to it than simple corporatist apologism. I for one am openly and passionately opposed to the kind of privatization and deregulation that, say, your more Republican Libertarian types advocate. In many cases, libertarians are far more leftist than the alternatives you suggest.
John:
Like many ignorant people, you are incapable of seeing value in "wastelands". Some, like marshes, are actually highly productive. I regularly receive notes of thanks from people who have been seeking rebuttals to libertarian propaganda, and my site is used in at least 3 college courses.
Quality and content do vary at my site: but then you can say the same of pretty much any libertarian site. If you don't know how to distinguish the high quality content from the rest, it probably wouldn't help you anyhow.
Jeremy:
I'm quite sympathetic to left-libertarians, and have advised on the construction of a left-libertarian FAQ and site in the past. There's an index at my site dedicated to left-libertarian criticisms of right libertarianism.
But very simply, I'm not interested in expending the energy to always change my terminology. It would be clumsy, confuse many readers, and not do much to support a very tiny viewpoint.
Mike, you might wish to blog on this, it´s very funny.
John, you're the one who brought up the subjective notion of "wasteland".
Now, I could inflict my subjective valuations of candidate articles by rejecting those I disagreed with or thought were inferior or erroneous.
Instead, I attempt diversity, on the theory that some people will view one as a wasteland while others view it as a paradise. A conservative will be receptive to different approaches than a liberal.
Nor am I trying to reject all variations of libertarianism: they might have a good idea here and there.
Post a Comment