Category: Thoughts

CHEAPER FOR THE STRONG TO GIVE PEOPLE PROPERTY RIGHTS [P]roperty exists prior to codification in a constitution. So does promise, prior to the institution of contract. A constitution is merely an agreement for reciprocal insurance of the terms of property and contract. It so happens that allocation of property rights determines the incentives possible, and…

[W]hile Propertarianism does provide the missing logic of cooperation that Mises promised us, and that the prohibition of free riding is the single cooperative problem to be overcome, that the central proposition of Propertarianism is the western struggle to testify truthfully to one’s jury, and that trust is the result of that struggle, and economic…

PROPERTARIANISM: THE TRANSACTION COST THEORY OF GOVERNMENT(second draft) (closer) [H]istory says only that the development of a state – a monopoly bureaucracy – transfers high local transaction costs without central rents, to state rents and low transaction cost. Libertarians nearly universally ignore the evidence of universal transaction costs and free riding at the local level.…

–“You don’t have a right to rights. Pay full price, like everyone else.”–  Eli Harman –“The entrance fee to the land of Liberty is your contractual obligation to risk life, limb and property to obtain and defend it. Free riders have permission only – not Liberty. Only fee paying members have existential rights.”– Curt Doolittle…

Guest Post By Eli Harman [L]iberty can triumph because liberty is the most robust sort of authoritarianism. You can kill a king. You can corrupt a democracy. But a distributed dictatorship of free men is practically irresistible and unassailable in comparison. Its power derives from a degree of all-seeing omnipresence that exceeds even the wildest…

(Lament)(catharsis) [I] get a lot of criticism from my friends for trying to ‘help’ idiots. And yes, it is often a waste of time in the sense that you can’t change their thinking (much). On the other hand, I learn a lot about how to debate when I do argue with simple folk. I saved…

Calls for the closer integration of science in political decision-making have been commonplace for decades. However, there are serious problems in the application of science to policy — from energy to health and environment to education. One suggestion to improve matters is to encourage more scientists to get involved in politics. Although laudable, it is…

Guest Post by Michael Phillip [A]ll the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) says is that markets use all available information. Which does not sound like much until one works through the implications. One of which is, as William Easterly states, economists correctly predicted that they could not correctly predict. In Cochrane’s words: “It’s fun to say…

—“When I was in high school, I thought we should put the robots in charge. … Then I realized the market is a computer.”—Eli Harman

—“Leninism’s development of the totally expropriating state was profoundly atavistic. So atavistic that, the Soviet Union managed to pass through ibn Khaldun’s state cycle in a single life time. “— Michael Phillip –“Lenin famously claimed that communism was socialism + electricity. Actually, it was an attempted return to the origins of the state + electricity.…

[I]t is merely a convenient language for science. A pidgin -just as mathematical Platonism is a convenient pidgin for mathematics. I apologise to my friends an ex friends for the experiments that I had to run in order to solve the superior problem. I appreciate all your efforts and patience. But I think it was…

[C]HALLENGING THOUGHT OF THE DAY(useful) 0 – We are unequally desirable mates – this is necessary for evolutionary adaptation.1 – We evolved a reproductive division of labor – the genders.2 – We evolved an inter-temporal division of reproductive labor:4 – We demonstrate short, medium, and long term preferences; 5 – We demonstrate short, medium, and long…

—“First they ignore you , then they ridicule you, then they fight you then you win.”— [O]nly a dishonest man would recommend people not read something, rather than attack the central argument of the author. But then, dishonesty is central to the ghetto ethic, is it not? If you do not understand the central arguments,…

I don’t remember who in the thread above wondered aloud whether something Curt Doolittle wrote was a joke or not. This is generally a problem with reading what Curt Doolittle writes. It is one of the reasons I recommend not trying to read him. He has been captured by a mania for categorization, and the…

[I]n Ukraine, we have the only poor, honest, white people left on the planet. The only thing we lack is a justice system. The only difference between Ukraine and Canada is that Canada has America instead of Russia as the most influential political neighbor. We just need anglo-american jurisprudence and Ukraine will not only the…

Guest post by Michael Philip [D]emocracy is supposed to make things better, by making all voters part of the political bargaining process. The problem with that is much of the art of representative politics is using the coercive power of the state to provide benefits to folk who do notice (and care and effectively politically…