Does Bigotry Pay in a Free Market? Absolutely.
A fast-growing talking point among pseudo-libertarians is the idea that a free market will reward diversity and punish bigotry. Reality suggests otherwise.
Tagged: free markets
A Romantic, a Monk, and a Neoliberal Walk Into a Bar…
On Romanticism in Politics Romanticism is wonderful in a work of fiction, art or video game. As a died-in-the-wool modern day romantic, I’ve spent most of my life doing my best to use fantasy...
“That’s What I Know, That’s What I Am”
Mr. Kain has graciously invited me to start posting on the main page here at the League, so a more official introduction is probably in order. Instead of writing about where I live and what...
Craft Beer and the Human Economy
Tom Philpott observes that not all alcohol regulations need necessarily be a bad thing: It’s true that Carter’s move on behalf of home brewers helped push along the craft-brew revolution, as did the state-by-state...
Free Market as Forest
I’m a believer in free markets. Indeed, my support for organized labor is largely due to what I’ve been referring to as front-end-redistribution (negotiated between management and labor) as opposed to back-end redistribution (top-down...
On Free Markets
So look, I believe that free markets are absolutely the way to go. Don’t go with the central planners – who wants wage controls dictated from the top down? Things didn’t work out so...
Kip’s Law Sighting: Trash Collection Edition
One of my earliest blog-buddies, Kip Esquire, used to have a running feature called “Kip’s Law Sighting.” Kip’s Law is simply described as: “Every advocate of central planning always — always — envisions himself...
Walmart is not the culprit, it is the symptom
Whatever else one thinks of how we live these days, it’s hard to not see it as temporary, historically anomalous, a peculiar blip in human experience. I’ve spent my whole life riding around in...
Markets and morally satisfying outcomes.
I need to vent a little bit about the way the discussions under Jason’s post on markets and E.D.’s response have tended to move into debates about the merits of communism and capitalism, as...
A brief defense of Walmart
In my ‘wealth and moral character’ post, the discussion quickly turned to the Walmart debate, and whether Walmart was bad or good for local economies, communities, etc. Let me first say that I understand...
Markets in Everything
Following up a bit on my “General America” piece, I wanted to add that I find the “all markets all the time” position within conservatism to be somewhat unfulfilling as well. Market solutions are...
Reimagining the welfare state
I have come more and more to believe that America is need of a stronger set of safety-nets and public investment in general. Beyond the need for a more robust safety-net apparatus including some...
Fools and scoundrels
“If anyone tries to tell you that uncertainty about climate change is a reason for inaction, he’s either a fool or a scoundrel. Probably a bit of both.” ~ Mark Kleiman Kleiman makes a...
conservatives as self-parodies
This interview with Andy Schlafly [below] of conservapedia.com is hard to watch. It’s almost embarrassing. I think Colbert is at his best for most of the exchange, and the zinger about creating his own reality...
I Give Up
If there was ever even the faintest glimmer of hope for Wyden-Bennett or any other kind of meaningful health care reform proposal amenable to conservative and libertarian sensibilities, the Club For Growth just killed...
It’s About Structure, Not Volume
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has a good piece up that explores some of the same ground I explored in my self-critique of libertarianism, although he unfortunately does so without the assistance of Monty Python. Gobry’s central...
the unintended consequences of economic populism
“POPULIST, n. A fossil patriot of the early agricultural period, found in the old red soapstone underlying Kansas; characterized by an uncommon spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him the power of...
on healthcare
I think the one thing that free-market health care advocates have yet to illustrate is, as Freddie mentions in the comments to his latest post, how a free-market solution will provide affordable coverage to...
