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Legitimacy would be ‘perfect’ if the actions of a representative (the government) were identical in both priority and content to the preferences of the individual. Legitimacy is neutral if the preferences and priorities are unobjectionable. Legitimacy is lost when the preferences and priorities are actively unwanted, despised or damaging. We can consider tyranny an absolute…

QUESTION [Edited for Clarity – CD] I have a question. Curt stated that conservatism consists of true premises advanced by mythology and irrationalism. The theory that “conservatism = true premises advanced by mythology” is itself a descriptive theory that is part of conservatism, i.e., it is a self-description of conservatism. There are other descriptive theories…

Finally, I had the courage to ask for a Wikipedia page. I actually dont like the attention, but it’s necessary marketing.

The Golden Rule is quite simple. But what complexity emerges from it? Property rights are very simple. But what complexity emerges from them? The problem of cooperative politics does not seem simple until we reduce it to these first principles: 1) the dependence by humans on instinct in the face of complexity, and 2) the…

[W]estern ethical philosophy consists largely in the analysis of norms for the purpose of conducting a criticism of norms, and hypothesizing the construction of new norms. Political philosophy requires an ethical basis, and therefore depends upon ethical philosophy. Political economy in turn depends upon the implementation of institutions within a political system. Therefore ethics have…

I do not say liberals ‘suck’ I say that they do not comprehend conservatives and that conservative language is to blame. This needs to be fixed if we are to have a democratic polity with rational debate. I have articulated that these differences are nothing more than reproductive strategies writ large. I’ve articulated the difference…

His market salary is a fair salary. There is no other concept of ‘fair’. If he does not get a market salary, then the cash value of his earnout is decreased by the difference between his current salary and his market salary.  If this was not covered in the agreement whatsoever, then there might be…

The question is really too broad as stated.  We’d need this information: 1) Do you have a market and can you prove it? Meaning can you list specific customers or specific distribution channels to reach customers with? Or are you hoping to build a product that will sell itself?  Because that doesn’t happen unless it’s…

It appears from the data that floats around the internet, that an MBA will help your career in a large company. It does not appear that an MBA (or any education for that matter) will help you as an entrepreneur.  Hard work, likability, the ability to sell ideas and persuade, and a little bit of…

Who is not included in my reading list and why? You might notice that I don’t include Steven Ozment and other great romantic historians. If you want to read them, then that’s fine. I agree with their rapture. On the other hand, I’m a POLITICAL ECONOMIST which means I care only about the necessary institutions…

Where in history has libertarianism ever successfully been practiced? It seems a miserable failure in Somalia. What are the problems that you feel need to be "fixed"? I like much of what I read at the Mises site and other Libertarian internet gathering places, but I dislike and disagree with the majority of it. What…

Matt has used liberal framing to categorize three different conservative argumentative techniques. Effectively, it’s an elaborate game of name calling. And nothing more. Instead, he ignores all of history, all of the development of thought in philosophy, law, and government in order to reduce his argument to one of simplistic ideology and emotions. Which makes…

The nuclear family is an expensive artifice. It is economically accountable. It is the smallest economically accountable unit (tribe) humans can produce. It requires constant compromise. It requires suppression of our instincts and desires. It requires a long time preference. Because of that it encourages late marriage, and careful mate selection. The reward we get…

Weighted by popularity, Krugman is the most dishonest public intellectual in America. He is a party hack at best. At worst he is nothing more than an anti-white racist. Of course he’s still dangerous. But libertarians and conservatives are dangerous too. Libertarians, because we believe that it is possible for a majority of humans to…

But the sea also remains in dispute, with China and five other countries having claims to some or all of its islands, rocks and waters. It is also a cause of superpower rivalry. America asserts its own “national interest” in the freedom of navigation in the sea, and, like the South-East Asian claimants to the…

One growing point of tension that I that has both semantic and substantive difficulties is whether or not we regard the situation in the mortgage markets as “structural.” via Two-Track Intermediation « Modeled Behavior. Karl, I would love it if you would solve this semantic problem. Because it’s material to the public debate. The technical…

Jim Macnamara, author of Media and Male Identity: The Making and Remaking of Men did a PHD Dissertation looking at men and the media and found the following:The study involved collection of all editorial content referring to or portraying men from 650 newspaper editions 450 broadsheets and 200 tabloids, 130 magazines, 125 TV news bulletins,…

John Cocharane argues: Paul Krugman, in a most recent post, argues “Backward moves the macroeconomic debate” with “the result that our economic discourse is significantly more primitive now that it was 70 years ago.” Per Krugman, this backward movement is apparent in the use by some opponents of active demand management policy, such as Amity…

Peak Oil is nowhere near as troublesome as the different points of Peak Female and Male participation in the workforce. Unemployed women can participate in child rearing. Unemployed men create civil disruptions. via The Real Reasons There Aren’t Many High-Earning Female Business Owners; A New Study from American Express OPEN Explains | Business | TIME.com.…

I. A NEW MYTHOLOGY Neil Postman’s proposed five new ‘gods’ or narratives, that may better serve american culture. Postman’s ideas are interesting in that there is nothing ‘American’ about them. They are the feminine values of the campfire. They fail to address what made the west a religion of rationalism, a high trust society that…