In response to Pope Francis’ call for nations to distribute their resources more evenly, Sean Hannity unleashed an ugly tirade. In it, he refers to the poor as stupid and lazy, which is more or less the reality of how the right-wing regards them. Despite their various shell arguments to the contrary, the core reason… Continue reading Desert Theory, Rehashed
Property and Conflict
By now, I think I’ve made my point that private property institutions violate self-ownership, negative liberty, and the non-aggression principle. Although your everyday amateur libertarian will continue to believe, beyond all reason, that their preferred institutions are justified by these concepts, many of the smarter libertarians have already given up that line. Here, I address… Continue reading Property and Conflict
Imagine people did things they already do
I was struck by how comically bad this Josh Barro piece is today. Let’s count the ways. Imagine if we bought food the way we buy housing. Instead of buying the food you need right now, you would buy a contract giving you rights to a stream of food in perpetuity. Say, a contract entitling… Continue reading Imagine people did things they already do
Rich Parents Planned This
Returning to the Megan McArdle saga, I want to make a point about intergenerational class entrenchment that does not really come out of the other posts so far. So here goes. One of the interesting things about conservatives is that they seem to often sympathize with poor children in this country, but clearly have little… Continue reading Rich Parents Planned This
The McArdle Paragraph
Twitter got real fired up today about a post I made last week. In it, I attacked a Megan McArdle piece in which she argues that providing poor people more resources would not solve the pain they experience from relationships and status and (some of them) being out of work and so on. My point… Continue reading The McArdle Paragraph