The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Classical Liberalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 23rd, 2012
Dogs are the mother of all externalities producers. Most of the costs they impose on “society” are not in fact borne by the owners of the dogs but by the rest of us. All along the Erie Canal towpath where I like to bike, walk and jog there are more piles of poop than there [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Flotsam and Jetsam on May 22nd, 2012
Here are a few of the folks from our student organization at our graduation. From left to right they are Julia, Jason, Ryan, Vinit, Dana, Matt, Wintercow (in his Cornellian Red), Alex, Jason, Joey, Scott and Amanda. As I’ve told my students, the only reason I put myself through five years of grad school is so [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Apr 19th, 2012
A panelist at a conference I participated in last week offered up a quick thought on a reform that would serve to limit government power. The reform idea is based on the worry that majorities can simply vote themselves goodies at the expense of minorities in most democratic systems, even republican ones. We certainly see [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Macroeconomics, Politics on Apr 16th, 2012
Religious worship of the multiplier can very quickly devolve into a way to justify dishonesty in the market. I wished Keynesians would recognize this. Think of how such reasoning might go (from the standpoint of a businessman, no friend you should note, of capitalism): Businessman: “Gee, I have a product that some people like. If [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Apr 12th, 2012
Yesterday, we outlined briefly the difference between traditional conceptions of justice and modern versions of it. Today I wanted to highlight one simple implication of it, and in future posts we may spend some more time on the problems with the concept of social justice itself. Hayek states in the Constitution of Liberty the most [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Apr 11th, 2012
There is perhaps no greater misunderstanding in the world today than what the term “justice” means. Indeed, almost the very opposite of its true meaning has all but been institutionalized. When we used to teach the canon of Western Civilization as a part of obtaining a college degree, individuals learned about the Aristotelian conception of [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Government Gone Wild, Religion on Apr 4th, 2012
Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution gets a lot of attention in debates today, and rightly so. It lays out specifically the things that Congress has the power to do (such as levy taxes). Much of the modern controversy over what government can and cannot do devolves into a food fight about what Article [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Mar 31st, 2012
In which he argues that the argument for liberty must at its core be one on principles and against the expediency doctrine that typically withers it away: For in each particular instance it will be possible to promise concrete and tangible advantages as the result of the curtailment of freedom, while the benefits sacrificed will [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Methodology, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 17th, 2012
From an essay by Peter Kreeft on Progressivism: Thus chronological snobbery is the identification, or confusion, of “change” with “progress.” “Progress” is a value-laden term: it means not just change but change in a certain direction, change for the better. It is like a graph in geometry that charts the movement of some entity (a [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Mar 13th, 2012
Here’s an oldie but goodie (more to come): On the contrary, I should have desired that, in order to prevent self-interested and ill-conceived projects, and all such dangerous innovations as finally ruined the Athenians, each man should not be at liberty to propose new laws at pleasure; but that this right should belong exclusively to [...]
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