Author: Curt Doolittle

  • don’t disagree on objectives. We disagree on methods and externalities

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3184We don’t disagree on objectives. We disagree on methods and externalities.


    Source date (UTC): 2011-07-10 00:18:00 UTC

  • gives some people the right to rule others?

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3178What gives some people the right to rule others?


    Source date (UTC): 2011-07-10 00:16:00 UTC

  • Stiglitz: To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself. The willingness to prote

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3175Criticizing Stiglitz: To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself. The willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or


    Source date (UTC): 2011-07-10 00:15:00 UTC

  • Understanding Libertarianism As A Technical Philosophy

    Over On “League of Ordinary Gentlemen” there is a very long thread fitfully attempting to be critical of Libertarianism. It’s interesting how almost no one on the thread understands anything other than what they’ve read in the popular press about libertarianism. Which is common, because like any doctrine, people adopt it because of the appeal of it’s general sentiments, not because they actually understand it. And they propagate the sentiments very simplistically. Then, those who have adopted other doctrines because those doctrines appeal to their own sentiments, react to these simplistic statements of sentimentality, rather than to the libertarian doctrine itself –and all potential opportunity for rational discourse is lost in the chaos. A TECHNICAL, EMPIRICAL PHILOSOPHY But Libertarianism is a technical philosophy that can be rationally articulated. It is often, for historical reasons, articulated as a moral philosophy as is most western ideology. THis is because the French enlightenment philosophers ‘Catholicized’ what was an empirical Anglo philosophical system and converted it to sentimental, moral, and rational system of thought. It was this moral, rational, and sentimental French framework, not the empirical Anglo framework that was popularized by continental philosophers and through their writings, distributed to the world in printed literature — thereby removing precisely what made the Classical Liberal economic political program innovative: that it was procedural and empirical rather than rational. HISTORY The term “Libertarian” was coined by Classical Liberals because the left appropriated the term “liberal” for their Moral political program. PRINCIPLESFirst Principle: Economics Libertarianism relies on economics.

      So, in any political discourse, given a multitude of possible choices, libertarians ‘err on the side of liberty’ because they believe liberty will have the most positive and the least negative side effects. Second Principle: Anti-Bureaucracy Libertarians use the term government as a synonym for bureaucracy. They use anti-authoritarian arguments. Anti authoritarian arguments are Moral and rational arguments. Anti-bureaucratic arguments are rational and empirical arguments: meaning that the evidence is that bureaucracies universally consolidate power and abuse it because of the processes and incentives necessary for humans to operate in a bureaucratic organization. (See Michels and Mises). Libertarianism then, is an anti-bureaucratic rather than anti-government philosophical framework. It suggests that people can and do organize into groups we call governments. It suggests that in almost all cases, privately owned, market-driven service providers will provide better services at lower cost with less danger of bureaucratic abuse of group members than the alternatives. Third Principle: Voluntary Transfer Libertarians use moral arguments to criticize involuntary transfer of property. However, the rational and empirical argument is that only voluntary transfer allows people to ‘calculate’ positive social ends together by making use of their collective knowledge, rather than the supposed knowledge of one or more bureaucrats – and that ‘externalities’ (the secondary effects) are beneficial when transfers are voluntary. The single moral property that defines all libertarian philosophy is that individuals have a monopoly on the use of their minds, bodies and property. LIBERTARIANISM Libertarian is a middle class (commercial) philosophy. It consists (largely) of two wings:

      • Classical Liberal
      • (This is the important part that is lost on everyone – libertarians included. It is an empirical system of government.)
      • Anarchist

      THE VALUE OF LIBERTARIANISM The libertarian research program has contributed significantly to political discourse because it has:

        CONCLUSIONS In the end, the combination of poor data collection, fiat monetary policy, use of the DSGEM in economics and it’s ‘static’ limitations, undermining the constituion’s implied but unstated empirical nature, and the democratic rather than class-based process of debate, have put us in a position where it is not possible to make rational economic and political judgements. Thanks to Libertarians, we know that whether or not we have moral ambitions, we cannot currently make rational decisions in our form of government with the information at our disposal. And that is profound.

      • We Don’t Disagree On Objectives

        On Modeled Behavior, Karl posts that Unemployment is ‘Awful’. And he posts a chart illustrating that losing a job is a serious emotional experience. But, the most obvious conclusion from the data in that chart is that “separation from your social and familial group” – separation from your tribe – is what troubles human beings the most. There is nothing to be learned about ‘money’ from the list of psychological stressors. That aside, and back to your point: No one disagrees that unemployment is bad. The disagreement results from our differences in opinion over how to improve unemployment while producing the least damaging externalities. The difference between conservatives and progressives is largely one of creating systemic fixes with positive externalities using the private sector that may take time on the one hand, and creating dependencies that create negative externalities using the government sector that produce immediate relief and long term negative consequences that serve to reduce liberty on the other. And in the different evaluation of those externalities by the two sides. To progressives, a powerful state that helps them oppose the market is beneficial. To conservatives a powerful state that opposes the market is a threat. It is inconceivable to conservatives that freedom is not more important than temporary stress. Conservatives in the US are classical liberals, which by definition means liberty-seekers. Freedom is an intrinsic good. They do not understand that freedom is, and always has been, a minority proposition, and that only under rare circumstances can freedom be obtained – precisely because a large percentage of people do not want it, and another group can achieve elite status by preventing any group from obtaining it. Market prosperity requires personal freedom: property rights. Market prosperity does not require political or national freedom. Given the distribution of freedom seekers versus security seekers, Political freedom for the majority is a guarantee that the freedom-seeking minority will lose both political and personal freedom. Freedom is not a desire of the many. Inexpensive goods that result from freedom are. But freedom to take risks in the market is, and always has been, a minority proposition that is only possible during periods where the majority of citizens are small business people – such as under expansionist agrarianism in both Classical Greece, MIgration Period Settlement, Ascendent England, and the conquest of the american continent. The rest of the time, most people are some form of dependent – serfs – to the minority of people who actually take personal speculative risk in creating production for the market. The progressive vision of the universe is that there is a world of plenty from which they are ostracized. The conservative vision of the universe is that there is a world of scarcity which must be constantly replenished through risk taking and experimentation. The progressive sees human reason as able to solve anything we can agree upon. The conservative vision sees human reason as demonstrably frail, and that our hubris is what undermines our success – only discipline and work can create material improvement.

      • Conservative Strategy Since 1980

        The Leftist blog Economists View posts that Stiglitz writes that there is an ideological crisis in western capitalism. by which he simply means the “right is wrong”, and Stiglitz is right. Really. That’s all he says. And, of course, Stiglitz’s analysis is a straw man. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY The conservative strategy since 1980 has been: 1) Defeat ideological communism as a threat to the international order, and to American trade interests – and to borrow any amount of money to do so. 2) Dismantle the left wing “great society’ movement, and if possible privatize education, social security and medicare as a means of starving and de-politicizing the government. 3) Starve the government either by over commitment or over extension, forcing either the dismantlement or privatization of ‘socialist’ programs. 4) Support of the entrepreneurial class, and increase home ownership in order expand conservative sentiments. UNEXPECTED a) The replacement of ideological communism with ideological Islam was an unexpected threat and a high cost. b) The christian whites have become a minority was faster than they expected, and the transition of christian whites into a political block that acts like an minority was also unexpected. Therefore the conservative movement has not been able to ideologically adapt to this change fully – they still remain attached to the Classical LIberal Constitutional model, despite the obvious evidence that the model has failed them and (per Epstein) attacks on constitutionalism by the courts and leftist cultural indoctrination by the schools has been largely successful. The next development in conservatism will be to acknowledge that failure and to become a more consistently adversarial, entrenched and likely racially or culturally identifiable block. RESULTS The end result is : a) that the country remains center-right, and will continue to remain center-right for any politically actionable period of time. b) the process of converting the rest of the world to some form of capitalism, albeit, totalitarian capitalism, or social democratic capitalism, is complete, outside of Islam, which now only needs one or more likely two core states to emerge – neither of which will be an expansionist and militant Iran. c) the country is fragmenting into permanent regional blocks opposed to one another. Family moving patterns suggest that this trend will continue to create stronger divisions, further amplifying the effects created by the end of southern conservatism’s association with the Democratic party. d) the attempt to move people into home ownership as a means of encouraging the conservative sentiment has failed and was an unwise plan in the first place. THe lower class population needs to be mobile and increasingly urbanized to compete. e) the right will claim that the constitution has been sufficiently undermined that it no longer holds sway, and that the left will simply use temporary political power to circumvent it, and there the right will develop the mantra that ‘it’s just mob rule’ and that the constitution is simply ‘how we conservatives shackle each other and give the left time to undermine freedom.’ This will be the next political movement for the right. It is only logical. f) it may be true that Chicago monetarism has been undermined, but it is also true that almost all quantitative DSGEM theory has been undermined. But the institutional investment in academia in the failed doctrine will continue to persist until a radical paradigmatic changes has been developed elsewhere. TRENDS The general trend that will drive support for conservative sentiments will be: 1) the regionalization and fractionalization of domestic culture due to demographic concentrations. and the eventual exhaustion of the population’s tolerance for discord. It appears from the data that our urban centers are headed toward the south american model of an elite urban (white) center, surrounded by a ring of poverty, and a (white) conservative rural culture. 2) the increase in small businesses due to repositioning of the US work force in the global economy. 3) the increase sense of threat from weakened US strategic and economic power. 4) the extended economic stress that will likely lose a generation of permanently displaced workers. STRAW MAN So, Stiglitz simply does not understand conservative strategy or motivations and is arguing against a straw man by assuming that conservative and liberal goals are the same. FREEDOM IS A GOAL IN ITSELF To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself, and freedom is incompatible with the left’s agenda. And the willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or economic policy or another was used to accomplish this is immaterial.

      • Conservative Strategy Since 1980

        The Leftist blog Economists View posts that Stiglitz writes that there is an ideological crisis in western capitalism. by which he simply means the “right is wrong”, and Stiglitz is right. Really. That’s all he says. And, of course, Stiglitz’s analysis is a straw man. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY The conservative strategy since 1980 has been: 1) Defeat ideological communism as a threat to the international order, and to American trade interests – and to borrow any amount of money to do so. 2) Dismantle the left wing “great society’ movement, and if possible privatize education, social security and medicare as a means of starving and de-politicizing the government. 3) Starve the government either by over commitment or over extension, forcing either the dismantlement or privatization of ‘socialist’ programs. 4) Support of the entrepreneurial class, and increase home ownership in order expand conservative sentiments. UNEXPECTED a) The replacement of ideological communism with ideological Islam was an unexpected threat and a high cost. b) The christian whites have become a minority was faster than they expected, and the transition of christian whites into a political block that acts like an minority was also unexpected. Therefore the conservative movement has not been able to ideologically adapt to this change fully – they still remain attached to the Classical LIberal Constitutional model, despite the obvious evidence that the model has failed them and (per Epstein) attacks on constitutionalism by the courts and leftist cultural indoctrination by the schools has been largely successful. The next development in conservatism will be to acknowledge that failure and to become a more consistently adversarial, entrenched and likely racially or culturally identifiable block. RESULTS The end result is : a) that the country remains center-right, and will continue to remain center-right for any politically actionable period of time. b) the process of converting the rest of the world to some form of capitalism, albeit, totalitarian capitalism, or social democratic capitalism, is complete, outside of Islam, which now only needs one or more likely two core states to emerge – neither of which will be an expansionist and militant Iran. c) the country is fragmenting into permanent regional blocks opposed to one another. Family moving patterns suggest that this trend will continue to create stronger divisions, further amplifying the effects created by the end of southern conservatism’s association with the Democratic party. d) the attempt to move people into home ownership as a means of encouraging the conservative sentiment has failed and was an unwise plan in the first place. THe lower class population needs to be mobile and increasingly urbanized to compete. e) the right will claim that the constitution has been sufficiently undermined that it no longer holds sway, and that the left will simply use temporary political power to circumvent it, and there the right will develop the mantra that ‘it’s just mob rule’ and that the constitution is simply ‘how we conservatives shackle each other and give the left time to undermine freedom.’ This will be the next political movement for the right. It is only logical. f) it may be true that Chicago monetarism has been undermined, but it is also true that almost all quantitative DSGEM theory has been undermined. But the institutional investment in academia in the failed doctrine will continue to persist until a radical paradigmatic changes has been developed elsewhere. TRENDS The general trend that will drive support for conservative sentiments will be: 1) the regionalization and fractionalization of domestic culture due to demographic concentrations. and the eventual exhaustion of the population’s tolerance for discord. It appears from the data that our urban centers are headed toward the south american model of an elite urban (white) center, surrounded by a ring of poverty, and a (white) conservative rural culture. 2) the increase in small businesses due to repositioning of the US work force in the global economy. 3) the increase sense of threat from weakened US strategic and economic power. 4) the extended economic stress that will likely lose a generation of permanently displaced workers. STRAW MAN So, Stiglitz simply does not understand conservative strategy or motivations and is arguing against a straw man by assuming that conservative and liberal goals are the same. FREEDOM IS A GOAL IN ITSELF To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself, and freedom is incompatible with the left’s agenda. And the willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or economic policy or another was used to accomplish this is immaterial.

      • propertarian analysis of patriotism. (FWIW: I’m an anti-statist, but an advocate

        http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3158A propertarian analysis of patriotism. (FWIW: I’m an anti-statist, but an advocate of minimal, constitutional, private government.)


        Source date (UTC): 2011-07-06 22:16:00 UTC

      • Chicago in July. Brutal. Seattle weather has made me soft

        Chicago in July. Brutal. Seattle weather has made me soft.


        Source date (UTC): 2011-07-06 13:44:00 UTC

      • bit profound for a statement about patriotism. But valuable if one seeks to unde

        http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3150A bit profound for a statement about patriotism. But valuable if one seeks to understand it.


        Source date (UTC): 2011-07-05 23:23:00 UTC