Category: Thoughts

For a set of reasons:1) Mating selection is determined by both genetic markers (physical properties) and status signals (social properties). 2) There are differences in desirability between the races due to different morphological attributes, despite the near universal human preference for a set of attributes.  3) There are different DISTRIBUTIONS of certain talents across the…

1) Hoppe has put forth an argument (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han…)  But hoppe would also argue that if a bunch of neighbors made a contract that no one without red hair could move into a neighborhood/village/city that was all privately owned, even by the use of shares, that since that contract was vountarily entered into by members…

From The Global Secular Humanism Group: “Should ‘Islam’ be considered as a political ideology and a religion at the same time?” The question should be restated in this fashion in order to illustrate Islam’s political content: A) Should Islam be considered a Religion? (Yes/No) YES: Religions consist of Myths and rituals. It does appear that…

( Pretty bad answers so far. I’ll try to help. ) I can speak to the US, UK, Germany and Greece, all of whom have  active movements at present — with England’s two groups currently the most activist and noticeable.  Although in Greece, the degree of stress and the Greek problem of Turkish immigration into…

Being a shareholder is like being a voter. It’s more symbolic than meaningful. Companies of any size are affected either by a) threats to the brand perception by customers or b) threats at regulation.  These two are more effectives strategies than minority share ownership. IMHO there is a trending body of thought that suggests shareholders…

Anon is correct. The reason that someone can violate another’s privacy is because there are insufficient property rights due to the ‘tragedy of the commons’ in ‘public’ areas. However, we don’t need to get that complicated.  If all citizens of a village are shareholders, and shareholders vote to create a contractual obligation that we don’t…

I am not sure that there is anything magical.  I think that libertarians prefer to pay one set of consequences, and statists to pay different consequences.  A libertarian is perfectly OK with it taking ten years to solve a problem. A statist isn’t. A libertarian would rather have to battle an irresponsible corporation using the…

An interesting question. Neo-liberalism (Neo-classical liberalism) relies upon our classical liberal institutions to create and maintain a minimal state.  “Libertarianism” because of the efforts of the Rothbardians to appropriate the term, has become synonymous with anarcho capitalism.  So, if we are using the word libertarian, we must separate the Libertarian party, from the libertarian sentiment,…

I think these people are describing a sentiment that they sense in the libertarian movement, not an explicit set of works. (I consider myself one of the people working on post-austrian solutions.)  There are a number of factors that are driving that sentiment. We are no longer battling socialism but redistributive democracy.  The Austrian canon…

There are two libertarian traditions; The christian aristocratic classical liberal (epitomized by Hayek) and the jewish merchant anarchic (epitomized by Rothbard)  Christians were a land holding majority and so needed formal institutions.  Jews were a diasporic religiously governed minority  and favor anarchism.  With the heavy jewish immigration into the USA, jewish authors advocated their means…

Conservatism is a sentiment. It has biological, environmental, pedagogical and rational components that reinforce it. Classical liberalism is a political philosophy.  Conservatives in the USA are conservative TOWARD classical liberalism. Christian Aristocratic Manorialism is a social model.  Conservatives are conservative TOWARD Christian Aristocratic Manorialism.  One does not need to read anything.  In fact, having to…

You listed political philosophies but not economic philosophies.  They are two sets of questions. 1) Political philosophies consider three different questions: a) How is the institution of property constructed (is property owned by individuals, the collective, an institution, or an authoritarian figure, and what are the limits on the use of that property)b) what institution…

Jonathan Haidt first attacks republicans then rescinds it. I try to put conservative strategy in context. And in that context it’s quite simple. It’s an extension of the tactic used against world communism: “Resist until they go bankrupt.” If you understand this strategy everything the conservatives and Republicans do makes complete sense. Everything. Jonathan, Very…

I’ll give you the underlying answer, even if it might take a bit of contemplation for it to make sense. 1) Minority peoples tend to be progressive. This has to do with the problem of ‘signaling’ (status) as well as access to opportunity and power. There  is nothing special about jewish progressivism other than they’re…

The Keynesian debate promoted by such writers as Krugman, Delong, Thoma, Smith, and Stiglitz is misleading. Human beings are well aware that spending can increase demand, and that demand will improve the economy. The problem is, that we’re also aware of the externalities that are caused by that spending: the increase in government interference in…

Politics is the process of creating and using institutions to issue orders, codified as laws, to commit organized violence to coerce others to alter their behavior, and to separate them from their property.  There is no subject that is free from political criticism. Because there are no limits to human desires to alter the behavior…

The Muslim countries were part of the Ottoman empire.  The Ottomans could not modernize for complex reasons, and could not compete with western expansion. When the empire fell, the westerners attempted to establish order in the conquered territories, by creating small states. And they promoted leaders in those states. Oil has been a strategic necessity…

No, the effort today has changed from arguing in favor of labor, to arguing in favor of the poor and minorities. And from arguing for rents, to arguing for direct redistribution. Marxism and the managed economy have been discredited. In no small part, Labor is no longer a significant force in society, they are less…

It would violate the principle of free speech.It would increase corruption at the cost of decreasing an annoyance.It would very likely decrease voter participation https://www.quora.com/Should-political-advertisements-be-banned-from-television

You would need to understand the term “Socialism”1) Original meaning: central control of the means of production.2) Current meaning: redistributive democracy -central ownership of the profits from individual actions. The first It has a bad name because: In the name of socialism nearly a hundred million people died (disruption of incentives). Because it’s economically impossible…

They represent different sets of alliances.  Mostly those that want to expand the state and those who want to contract it. https://www.quora.com/unanswered/What-are-the-differences-between-the-political-parties-in-the-USA

When I read Hayek, Schumpeter and Hoppe I became a libertarian. https://www.quora.com/unanswered/When-has-a-fact-any-fact-caused-you-to-radically-change-your-politics

OWS and The tea party are both likely to be long term phenomena caused by structural changes in the USA, and in the world economy. OWS still exists as a movement of sorts, but declined for two reasons:1) A failure to develop a platform of specific actions.  Movements need policy objectives and they didn’t propose…

Go visit Intrade.com.  Monitor it there. It’s quite accurate.  The electorate is polarized with only about 12-15% of people uncommitted to one party or the other.  Elections are determined by these uncommitted people.  These uncommitted people tend to vote based upon what their friends tell them.  Many people do not vote policy they vote likability.…

There are a series of possible stimuli available from the short term to the long term.1) Spending – Fiscal Policy: the government borrows money, then spends it on any number of projects.  This puts money in the hands of consumers, consumers spend on things not related to the projects, and businesses respond in order to…