Curt Doolittle

Author: Curt Doolittle

  • What Are “positive Rights”?

    I’ve been asked to comment on this topic.   I don’t think I can add much to what has been said here. But I will try to add some precision:

    A right is a thing that all people can grant to each other. Otherwise the term has no meaning.  We cannot grant each other positives. We lack the resources to grant resources to others.  We can however, equally forgo opportunities for satisfying our self interest.  In effect, we can all suffer deprivations of opportunity even if we cannot suffer the transfer of resources (money).

    But for clarity: We cannot make laws either.  Laws emerge.  We can only issue orders.  We grant orders legitimacy by calling them analogies to laws. Legislatures issue orders.  Laws emerge from observation of human actions. We cannot make laws, only recognize them.

    Likewise, we cannot make positive rights.  We can only make redistributive commitments – forcible transfer from one group to another.  We grant these goals legitimacy by calling them analogies to rights.

    But neither commands nor redistributions are what they claim to be by analogy.  They are what they are, and can be nothing else: commands and thefts.

    The rest is just gilding a sin in flowery language.

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-positive-rights

  • Untitled

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/the-case-for-abolishing-patents-yes-all-of-them/262913/

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-28 06:56:00 UTC

  • A Definition Of Libertarianism – Draft Two : From Intuitive Sentiment To Institutional Framework

    Libertarianism lih-ber-tair’-ee-un-ih’-zum (noun)1) SENTIMENT: A sentiment giving precedence to individual liberty above the competing sentiments of care-taking and order — which are the respective priorities of left and right. 2) POLITICAL BIAS: A range of political biases that express the precedence for liberty as the freedom from organized coercion through the minimization or elimination of monopolistic government — and therefore maximizing the self organizing civic virtues and norms. 3) ECONOMIC BIAS: An economic philosophy that seeks to maximize human prosperity by increasing the opportunity for entrepreneurial trial and error by advocating the inviolability of individual property rights, free trade, and sound money. 4) POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: An explicitly articulated political philosophy that reduces all rights to property rights, where property has been obtained by the processes of homesteading, manufacture, and voluntary exchange, which are necessary for peaceful human cooperation because they facilitate the emergence of a market for goods and services where prices convey information that we can use to determine our actions. 5) INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK: An framework of political institutions that seeks to replace the monopoly of the abstract state and its attendant bureaucracy with private formal institutions and public informal institutions that are subject to the pressures of market competition. libertarian lih-ber-tair’-ee-un An individual who demonstrates a preference for one or more of the definitions of Libertarianism.

  • SLEEPING ON PLANES 🙂 My body is trained. Just noticed that as soon as I start w

    SLEEPING ON PLANES 🙂

    My body is trained. Just noticed that as soon as I start walking down the ramp I start to fall asleep. I’m not sure that’s something I want to be trained in. :). It means I’ve spent too much time on planes.

    But pity those poor people who can’t sleep when flying.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-26 10:30:00 UTC

  • OK I”M GETTING FLACK FOR LIKING THE TATTOO SITES Look, you know, it’s an art thi

    OK I”M GETTING FLACK FOR LIKING THE TATTOO SITES

    Look, you know, it’s an art thing. I don’t do tattoos or women with them so to speak. I just don’t. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think that it’s beautiful. I just kind of wish it was paint that wore off in six months rather than permanently altering your body.

    No judging. That’s not the point. I’m a libertarian. THe point is that the illustrated human body, especially with organic imagery is just beautiful.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-25 17:48:00 UTC

  • Trying To Define Libertarianism In One Hundred Words. (And Failing)

    LIBERTARIANISM:1) A sentiment giving precedence to individual liberty above care-taking and order. 2) A range of political biases that express that precedence as freedom from organized coercion through the minimization or elimination of monopolistic government — and therefore a reliance on the maximization of self organizing civic virtues and norms. 3) An institutional framework that is reliant upon the sole principle of several property that has been obtained by homesteading, manufacture, and voluntary exchange. The result of which maximizes peaceful human cooperation by facilitating the emergence of a market for goods and services where prices convey information that we use to determine our actions. 4) An explicit political philosophy that reduces all rights to property rights, and seeks to replace the monopoly of the abstract state and its attendant bureaucracy with private institutions that are subject to the pressures of market competition. (138 words)

  • Untitled

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/2012/09/25/trying-to-define-libertarianism-in-one-hundred-words-and-failing/

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-25 12:28:00 UTC

  • THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER Practical cost of living

    THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER

    Practical cost of living differences between countries.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-25 11:33:00 UTC

  • I love honest liberals. They tend to be the sentimental ones. It’s the intellect

    I love honest liberals.

    They tend to be the sentimental ones.

    It’s the intellectuals who are dishonest.

    And they have to be. Fundamentally leftism is kleptocratic. It’s thievery.

    But it’s pretty hard to chastise civil people who simply want to take care of everyone.

    I just don’t want them to empower their intellectuals. Who are, in a word, crooks.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 22:43:00 UTC

  • PRIVATE SCHOOLS SUCCEED

    http://econjwatch.org/articles/why-the-denial-low-cost-private-schools-in-developing-countries-and-their-contributions-to-educationWATCH : PRIVATE SCHOOLS SUCCEED

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-24 21:23:00 UTC