Tag Archives: politics

Value Differences As Differently Crystallized Metaphysical Heuristics

[Previously in sequence: Fundamental Value Differences Are Not That Fundamental, The Whole City Is Center. This post might not make a lot of sense if you haven’t read those first.] I. Thanks to everyone who commented on last week’s posts. … Continue reading

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Highlights From The Comments On Basic Jobs

These are some of the best comments from Basic Income, Not Basic Jobs: Against Hijacking Utopia. I’m sorry I still haven’t gotten a chance to read everything that people have written about it (in particular I need to look more … Continue reading

Basic Income, Not Basic Jobs: Against Hijacking Utopia

Some Democrats angling for the 2020 presidential nomination have a big idea: a basic jobs guarantee, where the government promises a job to anybody who wants one. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders are all said to … Continue reading

Book Review: History Of The Fabian Society

I. A spectre is haunting Europe. Several spectres, actually. One of them is the spectre of communism. The others are literal ghosts. They live in abandoned mansions. Sometimes they wail eerily or make floorboards creak. If you arrange things just … Continue reading

Current Affairs’ “Some Puzzles For Libertarians”, Treated As Writing Prompts For Short Stories

[Taken from here.] I. Deep in the forest, thousands of miles from civilization, there is an isolated village. It has not seen contact with any other humans for a long time. It is, however, a pleasant and flourishing community, which … Continue reading

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Highlights From The Comments On Conflict Vs. Mistake

I. Thanks to everyone who commented on the posts about conflict and mistake theory. aciddc writes: I’m a leftist (and I guess a Marxist in the same sense I guess I’m a Darwinist despite knowing evolutionary theory has passed him … Continue reading

SSC Survey Data On Models Of Political Conflict

There were a lot of good comments on yesterday’s conflict vs. mistake post. Some were very appropriate challenges: for example, doesn’t public choice theory itself assume conflict between special interests? And didn’t Marxism start off with a dry incentive-based explanation … Continue reading

Conflict Vs. Mistake

Jacobite – which is apparently still a real magazine and not a one-off gag making fun of Jacobin – summarizes their article Under-Theorizing Government as “You’ll never hear the terms ‘principal-agent problem,’ ‘rent-seeking,’ or ‘aligning incentives’ from socialists. That’s because … Continue reading

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Tax Bill 3: Don’t Mess With Taxes

I. Thanks to everyone who commented on my last two posts, especially the many people who disagreed with me. Two things I will admit I got mostly wrong: 1. I was wrong to say there was “no case” for the … Continue reading

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Response To Comments: The Tax Bill Is Still Very Bad

There was some good pushback on yesterday’s article on taxes. But sorry, I’m still right. Many people responded with generic low-tax anti-government positions. Fine. Let’s say the government is definitely bad and taxes are definitely too high. The current tax … Continue reading

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