What's new

NEW 2/11/2013: Ron Paul Calls on United Nations to Confiscate Domain Names of His Supporters [More...]

Ron Paul filed an international UDRP complaint against RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org with WIPO, a global governing body that is an agency of the United Nations. The complaint calls on the agency to expropriate the two domain names from his supporters without compensation and hand them over to Ron Paul. [more...]

NEW 2/10/2013: Once more into the breach of self-ownership: Reply to Narveson and Brenkert [More...]

G. A. Cohen shreds Jan Narveson's arguments about self-ownership, defending his own arguments in Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality. [more...]

NEW 2/10/2013: Private Property, Coercion, and the Impossibility of Libertarianism [More...]

Christopher Schimke's Masters thesis criticizing Jan Narveson's libertarianism. It concludes: "even Narvesonian libertarianism endorses pervasive initiations of force against individuals." [more...]

NEW 2/10/2013: Jan Narveson

An anarchocapitalist libertarian professor of philosophy emeritus. Author of The Libertarian Idea. [more...]

NEW 2/10/2013: Rand Paul

A libertarian (and Tea Party) Republican Senator, son of Ron Paul. He was burnt when he gave his real feelings on the Civil Rights Act, and now is attempting to be a normal slimy politician. [more...]

NEW 2/09/2013: Harvard Injury Control Research Center [More...]

A great resource on the public health viewpoint for reducing injury. The Firearms Research section has pointers to a great many recent resources and debunks much propaganda. [more...]

NEW 2/09/2013: Disability

Libertarians have no solution to problems of disability: people who (often through no fault of their own) have physical or mental differences or impairments due to genetics, accident, age, etc. They sweep the problems under the rug, claiming that family and private charity are sufficient when all of history shows they are not. [more...]

NEW 2/08/2013: Contract Feudalism [More...]

Contract Feudalism describes the increasing power of employers over employee's lives outside the workplace. [more...]

NEW 2/08/2013: The United what of America?

Julian Assange points out that some corporations rival nation-states in size. Then he compares their systems of governments, pointing out that corporations have civic freedoms comparable to those of the 1960's Soviets. [more...]

NEW 2/07/2013: Let It Bleed: Libertarianism and the Workplace [More...]

"What makes the private sector, especially the workplace, such an attractive instrument of repression is precisely that it can administer punishments without being subject to the constraints of the Bill of Rights. It is an archipelago of private governments, in which employers are free to do precisely what the state is forbidden to do: punish without process. " [more...]

NEW 2/07/2013: The Workplace

Our greatest daily loss of liberty is in the workplace. Libertarian pretense that the workplace is voluntary would only make sense if people had an equal alternative to the workplace. Power differences between employer and employee result in many losses of liberty. [more...]

NEW 2/06/2013: The End of Low Hanging Fruit? [More...]

The authors point out that Tyler Cowen ignores the importance of incentives to innovation, which come from inclusive (not extractive) institutions. [more...]

NEW 2/03/2013: How to win arguments by pretending to be a simpleton [More...]

Noah Smith explains why Hans Hermann-Hoppe's method of criticizing Paul Krugman is really just trolling. And how HHH could really know better just by reading one or two papers. [more...]

NEW 2/03/2013: How To Debate Paul Krugman [More...]

Numerous anti-Krugman arguments are eviscerated [more...]

NEW 2/01/2013: Steven Pressman on Public Choice Theory [More...]

Seven fundamental problems with public choice theory that make it look like a ridiculous exercise. [more...]

NEW 2/01/2013: Public Choice Theory

A school that starts with anti-government and pro-market ideology to find that government cannot work and markets do. Surprise! [more...]

The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery [More...]

18th century state militias were primarily slave patrols. Southerners (including many of the founding fathers) feared northerners might not allow their state militias to enforce slavery. [more...]

The Origins of Neoliberalism, Part III – Europe and the Centre-Left Fall under Hayek’s Spell [More...]

How Europe adopted a somewhat different version of neoliberalism. [more...]

The Origins of Neoliberalism, Part II – The Americanisation of Hayek’s Delusion [More...]

How Friedrich Hayek recruited bankrollers through the Mount Pelerin Society, and eventually brought about an Americanized Road To Serfdom: Capitalism And Freedom by Milton Friedman. [more...]

The Origins of Neoliberalism, Part I – Hayek’s Delusion [More...]

How Hayek ignored the fact that the conservative policies he endorsed led to Hitler, and how he created a fantasy history where he was exculpated and the blame lay on liberals. [more...]

The Origins of Neoliberalism

A three part series by Philip Pilkington which attributes the rise of neoliberalism to Friedrich Hayek, drawing heavily on The Road To Mount Pelerin. How Hayek changed from an economist to a successful propagandist. [more...]

Infamous Libertarian Research

Much controversial social research by libertarians is quickly debunked by critics. Names such as John Lott, John Stossell, Tyler Cowen and Charles Murraypublish "research" that is so blatantly wrong that, after a brief fashion among their followers, not even libertarians take them seriously. [more...]

The Simple Truth About Gun Control [More...]

Gun control works, around the world. It is not a panacea, but just making access to weapons more difficult greatly reduces the numbers of homicides, suicides and accidents. [more...]

So You ThinkYou Know The Second Amendment? [More...]

Interpretations of the Second Amendment as an individual right are recent, political, not comprehensive and likely to change. [more...]

The God That Sucked [More...]

The results of roughly 30 years of market worship are a destruction of the American dream. [more...]

Capitalism, Markets and Laissez-Faire

Libertarian ideology worships these gods with feet of clay, and wishes no limits to them. History and common sense tell us that limits must be imposed on them, they must be regulated. [more...]

Elinor Ostrom on the Commons [More...]

How real-world solutions to the "tragedy of the commons" work without privatization. An easy, brief introduction. [more...]

Local Commons

Elinor Ostrom's real-world observed solutions to regulating commons without government or private ownership. [more...]

‘Free Market’ Double Standards 6.0 [More...]

The sixth hilarious collection of examples of self-contradiction by free marketeers. [more...]

Guns

Libertarians generally endorse unregulated private ownership of guns and other armaments, no matter how absurd. [more...]

NRA and other gun extremists

Libertarians usually endorse NRA positions or even more extreme positions on private ownership of armaments. The NRA has created an absolutist atmosphere extremely hostile to reasoned discussion of (or research on) benefits and harms of guns. [more...]

Propaganda Mills

The Koch brothers and other right-wing funders seldom produce their own propaganda: instead they encourage the development of independent, competitive propaganda mills as a means of reducing the costs of propaganda development. [more...]

EconStories.tv

As the name says, they specialize in fictional stories about economics, starting with opposition to Keynesianism. Witty and well-produced, but extremely misleading propaganda in favor of the economics preferred by the Koch brothers. [more...]

Leaving Libertarianism

A series of suggestions for how to start undoing libertarian programming. [more...]

The Short, Simple Dismissal Of Libertarianism

99% of libertarianism is obviously untrue or unacceptible. [more...]

Lavatory and Liberty: The Secret History of the Bathroom Break [More...]

"Many workers in the United States aren’t able to exercise their right to pee on the job -- due to lack of government enforcement -- and it wasn’t until 1998 (!) that they even got that right, thanks to the federal government." [more...]

Women's Issues

Women's issues (and feminism) are largely ignored by libertarianism, which is overwhelmingly male. In part inherited from early liberalism which assumed male heads of household represented the whole family both politically and economically. No libertarians have really grown past this to address women's issues as strongly as they address the issues of big business. [more...]

The American Social Contract: A Promise to Fulfill [More...]

A history of the US social contract from the 18th century to the 21st. Details five elements of economic opportunity comprising the social contract: economic liberty, economic access, economic adequacy, economic ability and economic security. [more...]

Huben on Social Contract

Libertarians misrepresent social contracts as they actually exist, referring instead to philosophical models. [more...]

No Discount: Comparing the Public Option to the Coupon Welfare State [More...]

A study of the advantages and disadvantages of vouchers, as opposed to direct public provision. "Vouchers take citizens democratically finding solutions to problems and turn them into consumers bidding on goods in a market. Finding solutions in a public space emphasizes accountability, voice, transparency, rules and claims through reasoning that goes beyond the self. The private market emphasizes cost-benefit thinking, exit, closed proprietary profit-seeking strategies, bargaining and the satiation of individual wants." [more...]

Vouchers

Libertarians claim to prefer vouchers to direct government provision. But they do so for ideological reasons, not because vouchers are the best method. Some voucher programs (such as food stamps) work well, but direct provision works better for many other goods. [more...]

Market Power

In a market exchange, there is producer surplus and consumer surplus. Market power is when producers can raise prices above the marginal costs to capture more of the surplus. Usually through monopoly or oligopoly. [more...]

International Comparisons That Favor Socialism

All the world consists of mixed economies, and those that are more socialist than the US tend to do better in health care, equality, social mobility and a host of other factors. [more...]

Mixed Economy

Existing markets are important parts of our mixed economies. The most socialist or communist economies in the world still use mixed markets, though they are more weighted towards central direction. Likewise the most capitalist economies, still weighted towards central direction within corporations. [more...]

I Pencil: A product of the mixed economy [More...]

John Quiggan unpacks the propaganda from Leonard Read's I Pencil. Pencils are products of the mixed economy, not of mythical free markets. [more...]

Libertarians understand economics: others have false understanding if they are not outright ignorant.

A classic case of psychological projection. Libertarians believe in all sorts of fringe economics (such as Austrian Economics) in addition to the most appalling errors of mainstream Chicago Economics. [more...]

EconoTrolls: An Illustrated Bestiary [More...]

An Illustrated Bestiary of the Econ Blogworld, helping you to identify libertarians, Austrians, Republicans, and a host of other creatures you will encounter in economics blogs. [more...]

Democracy

Representative democracy is the other enlightenment theory (besides markets) that has created today's world. Libertarians often view it as opposing markets, and grossly misrepresent it. [more...]

Civil Rights

The civil rights movement has been one of their great bugaboos: it is a classic example of non-market application of government to relieve widespread oppression. [more...]

Does Nozick Have a Theory of Property Rights? [More...]

Barbara Fried points out numerous ways Robert Nozick abandons libertarian principles and resorts to utilitarianism in Anarchy, State and Utopia. Free download. [more...]

Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty

Market anarchists (left libertarians) believe in free markets, not in capitalism. They wish to have markets free of both government and capitalism. [more...]

Methodological individualism today [More...]

"In my view, the only claims about methodological individualism that seem unequivocally plausible today are the ontological requirements -- the various formulations of the notion that social things are composed of the actions and thoughts of individuals and nothing else... As pragmatist sociologists are now arguing, there are compelling theories of the actor that do not privilege the model of conscious deliberative choice." [more...]

Methodological Individualism (propaganda)

A greedy reductionist (in the words of Daniel Dennett) attempt to oppose "collectivist" theories with theories of atomistic individuals. But individuals always exist and are entwined within societies. [more...]

Law

Libertarians want laws and interpretations of laws that favor their own interests. They have invested in authoring and sponsoring laws. They have their ridiculous own schools of legal and Constitutional interpretation, and they sponsor training for law students and judges. [more...]

A Process of Denial: Bork and Post-Modern Conservatism [More...]

James Boyle performs a thorough demolition of Robert Bork and his preferred "original intent" method of interpretation of the US Constitution. [more...]

Original Intent And The Constitution.

This is the beginning of a page on the problems with ideas of "Original Intent" of the founders, a conservative propaganda ploy much favored by libertarians.[more...]

Mechanism, Not Policy: Creation Of The Second Invisible Hand

Libertarians and their right wing ilk read far too much into the Constitution. It was not meant to spell out many specifics: but rather to provide a mechanism for reigning in law. [more...]

Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory [More...]

Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen rejects the simple egoism of economic man, as well as universal moral systems, and points out that "Groups intermediate between oneself and all, such as class and community, provide the focus of many actions involving commitment." [more...]

Amartya Sen's commitments [More...]

A recent post examined the Akerlof and Kranton formalization of identity within a rational choice framework. It is worth considering how this approach compares with Amartya Sen's arguments about "commitments" in "Rational Fools". [more...]

Value-free economics? [More...]

Vivian Walsh and Hilary Putnam's The End of Value-Free Economics points out that the attempt to draw a sharp line between "fact" and "value" turns out to be impossible. Including in economics. That means bringing in orienting human values at the foundations. [more...]

Create Fake Intellectual Authority

Libertarian alternative "authority" from think tanks, academic soft sciences, publications, institutions, etc. creates quotable resources for libertarian positions. No thinking required by the user and generally of little or no worth. Heavily financed by wealthy sources. The same strategy creationists use.[more...]

How Libertarian Ideas And Attitudes Are Spread

The spread of libertarianism is not due to some "truth" or intrinsic goodness. Libertarianism would have stayed a fringe belief were it not for enormous public relations programs financed for generations by the extremely wealthy. [more...]

Denialism

A public relations stratagem by which people with no data and no facts can create controversy and confusion about topics on which there is a broad consensus. Topics such as tobacco causing cancer, asbestos causing cancer, global warming and evolution. [more...]

Medicaid on the Ballot [More...]

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Cato Institute Helpfully Makes Its Fake Climate Report Look Like Actual Government Climate Report, Except Fake [More...]

Classic libertarian public relations propaganda about climate change. [more...]

Dictatorship Of The Masses

A putdown of democracy that pretends that modern governments are not constitutional representative democracies. And ignores the fact that modern democratic governments do not act like governments run by dictators. [more...]

Doesn't neo-liberalism in Chile prove that the free market benefits everyone? [More...]

"[...] "economic liberty" has not produced genuine "political liberty" as Friedman (and others) claim. Ultimately, for all but the tiny elite at the top, the Pinochet regime of "economic liberty" was a nightmare." Part of An Anarchist FAQ. [more...]

Less Prominant Libertarians....

Slightly less to greatly less well known. Certainly not needing to be on the main page. [more...]

Greg Ransom, self-appointed high priest of Hayek, gets smacked down as a troll in Crooked Timber. [More...]

Greg Ransom apparently watches for new Hayek mentions on blogs, and generally claims they all misrepresent Hayek. Except the ones he sides with.[more...]

Obama and the Road Ahead: The Rolling Stone Interview [More...]

Obama's ideas for a second term. [more...]