Felix Salmon has a piece at Vox about the Jill Abramson thing at the New York Times. Apparently there are rumors that she wasn’t paid as well as her male predecessor and that her complaints about this lead to her ouster. At one point in the piece, he says something that gives me a chance… Continue reading Talking About Pay
Anti-liberty economic regulations: a dialogue
In the same vein as my last dialogue on the subject of initial appropriation, I have conjured up a dialogue on the subject of libertarian regulation. This dialogue is set at the beginning of human time. A group of people gather to talk about things. Two of those people — Real Libertarian and Fake Libertarian… Continue reading Anti-liberty economic regulations: a dialogue
Desert Theory, Rehashed
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