Curt Doolittle

Theme: Governance

  • I just really like this meme. Our job as libertarians is not to be the majority

    I just really like this meme. Our job as libertarians is not to be the majority – we cant be. It’s to be intellectual arms dealers to anyone who opposes the totalitarian state. That is a really good meme. It’s a really good meme.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-25 06:40:00 UTC

  • MAXIMUM TAXATION? Taxation is by definition immoral. Whereas fees are not. We is

    MAXIMUM TAXATION?

    Taxation is by definition immoral. Whereas fees are not. We issue taxes even in local villages, largely to prevent free riding. We issue taxes under statism for the purpose of empowering the state. And little else.

    The maximum taxation possible is that which maintains the ability of exit from the market and the total reliance on past earnings as a means of maintaining one’s standard of living. If this lottery is removed it will decrease participation in experimentation that is only evident over a decade or more.

    Subtract from this the willingness of people to subsidize that which they disagree with.

    Subtract from this the impact that taxation places on their status signaling ability.

    Subtract from this the trust that their sacrifice is well used by government.

    Subtract from this their current level of economic confidence in the long term.

    That’s pretty much it. Math is pretty easy really.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-24 10:40:00 UTC

  • THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF COMPUTER SCIENTISTS TO THE REFORMATION IN LIBERTARIAN AND C

    THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF COMPUTER SCIENTISTS TO THE REFORMATION IN LIBERTARIAN AND CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL THOUGHT.

    When I went to Mises for the Austrian Scholars Conference the first time, I was struck dumb; first, by the incredible genius of the economic calculation argument, second by hoppe’s solution to the problem of institutions… But then equally by the failure to see that that BOTH Hayek and Mises were very close but wrong; the failure to grasp the importance of Popper’s contribution; the failure to grasp that no, the calculation issue was not ‘complete’.

    I realized something was wrong with Rothbard fairly quickly. It took me a few years to understand what Mises had done wrong with Praxeology, and only recently how to solve it completely. Hoppe was right about just about everything, but still had both Rothbard’s and Mises’ errors. But even so, he’d managed to get it all right anyway. Which, to me, is an even greater statement of his brilliance. Although, I’m still frustrated by his fascination with Argumentation.

    But it is this emphasis on experience and morality and preference instead of calculation that is everyone’s distraction. ( A topic that needs some reflection and exposition. And so I’ll return to it.)

    COMPUTER SCIENTISTS AND REFORMATION

    So strange. You know, there is this strange anti-computer-science bias in academia. But since the majority of intellectual revolution has come out of Mencius’ application of Austrian thought to conservatism, and my application of Austrian thought to libertarianism, while political science is fascinated by democracy, philosophy still squandering in the artifice of metaphysical pseudo-rationality, and mainstream economics is fascinated by growth and efficiency, and the left (literature) with obscurantism, pseudo-science, equality, diversity, and central control.

    And since, computer science is the only discipline that intersects between theoretical constructs and human interaction directly, I kind of think that, empirically speaking, computer science has more right than math, and certainly more right than economics. And political science and social science don’t even register signal above noise.

    Economics is a process of deduction from aggregation. Computer science is atomistic by its nature. It’s not deduction. It’s calculation. And therein lies an amazing difference in perception. We do not HAVE the economic data to tell us about human behavior at the level of atomicity we do with computers that interact with people on a daily basis. This teaches you about the hubris we must avoid when interacting with human beings.

    Math is platonic. Economics is idealistic. Computer science understands ‘ignorance, bias, incentives, and the limits of calculation’. Which is probably why we solved the political problem and the other groups didn’t.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-22 09:33:00 UTC

  • “EXPLAIN PROGRESSIVE VS CONSERVATIVE” Progressive and conservative express posit

    “EXPLAIN PROGRESSIVE VS CONSERVATIVE”

    Progressive and conservative express positions relative to the status quo. However, out of repeated use, this term refers to the difference between State control of society (left = totalitarianism), and ‘normative’ control of society (right = libertarianism).

    NOLAN/ASPLUND POLITICAL CHART

    However, the ‘NOLAN CHART’ is a more accurate and sophisticated view of politics as two dimensions. Left totalitarianism of the state via law, right totalitarianism of ‘norms’, and libertarian totalitarianism of commerce is probably the most accurate way of thinking about political biases.

    [see asplund chart]

    The problem is. This chart helps you organize political biases, but it doesn’t tell you WHY WE HAVE THEM. So we need to look at something else. Because it turns out that we don’t, except for the statistically insignificant, ever change our political biases.

    RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ORIGINS

    In my own work, I’ve tried to show how totalitarian, normative, and libertarian biases tend to originate from different religious and cultural backgrounds in europe.

    [See Doolittle Chart]

    FAMILY STRUCTURES

    And Emmanuel Todd’s work shows that these religious structures roughly correspond to our FAMILY structures. With conservatives in the nuclear family, catholics in the traditional family, jews in the extended family, and muslims in the tribal family. We are now able to trace the progressive left’s origins as an alliance between Northeast Puritan Women, The Feminist Movement, and the Jewish Communist Movement.

    [See Todd’s Diagrams]

    So Emmanuel Todd’s map of immigration and family structures, looks much like my map of religious structures (which you can find on the web now in a few places. It seems to be spreading a bit.)

    AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS

    So if you look at these maps of america:

    [ SEE MAPS OF AMERICA]

    It’s pretty clear, given everyone’s origins, where their political biases come from: their moral codes reflect their cultural origins, the relationship between their family structures, moral codes, and economic demands.

    PRACTICAL IMPACT

    If you understand this set of charts, you’ll quickly grasp, that all our political talk is purely entertainment and spent energy. Our political biases, like our moral intuitions, are not voluntarily chosen except at the margins.

    The people who decide elections in america consist of two groups:

    (a) Uninvolved, Uncommitted, and Unaware voters who represent from 7-14% of the populace (depending on who you ask), and who can be swayed by popular opinion and emotion rather than political conviction or reason, and (b) single mothers and young women who now represent a NEW FAMILY STRUCTURE, and who are highly biased toward the state (the left). It is these two groups who determine the outcome of elections, since everyone else is pretty committed and reasonably evenly distributed. (See Pew research.)

    This is why conservatives use every trick in the book to retain the nuclear family and progressives eery trick in the book to undermine the nuclear family because the nuclear family, and it’s civic independence is the primary threat to state power. Religion has always been an effective means of resisting the western state. And conservatives use this because it means they get to establish their own moral grounds insulated from argument. Just as progressives try the same by different means.

    SOURCE OF POLITICAL BIASES

    (1) Genetics

    (2) Gender

    (3) Childhood family structure

    (4) Culture

    (5) Environment

    (6) Willful Informed Adult Choice

    GENDER BIASES

    When we created representative democracy the head of household was a male with discretion over family use of property, and was the equivalent of a small or medium sized business owner today. These men had homogenous moral and cultural codes. They had relatively homogenous interests that differed only by scale. The opposing reproductive and therefore moral intuition for men and women was homogenized by the nuclear family structure. But the addition of women to the workplace and the voting pool eliminated that compromise. And as each generation passes, women increasingly are either single, or single mothers, and vote the female reproductive bias, which is to bear children and care for them but place responsibility for their support and upkeep on the tribe as much as possible. Other factors matter, but by and large it is women and their preference to press the costs of childrearing on the ‘tribe’ that has determined the gradual leftward motion in america, and left the conservative nuclear family with its emphasis on self reliance in the minority. There are more issues here but I’m attempting to emphasize that our political biases are not the conscious choices that we think they are. We are incredibly predictable.

    [See Masculine Feminine Biases Diagram]

    RECOMMENDED READING

    1) “Political Ideologies : An Introduction” by Andrew Heywood.

    Political Ideologies: An Introduction: Andrew Heywood: 9780230367258: Amazon.com: Books

    2) “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt

    The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: Jonathan Haidt: 9780307377906: Amazon.com: Books

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-21 11:08:00 UTC

  • What Are The Key Differences Between Mainstream Libertarian Thought And The Positions Taken By Koch-sponsored Organizations?

    The Koch’s are irrelevant.  They are just the easiest source of money. But it doesn’t take much money to run a think tank, so there are a lot of them.

    The libertarian spectrum is roughly aligned with the conservative,  Right Libertarian, Left Libertarian, and Anarchist spectrum, and most of us are associated with one or more of the Think Tanks that address the conservative – libertarian spectrum. 


    They are (key players only):



    CONSERVATIVE LIBERTARIAN
    1. The Heritage Foundation : conservative libertarians (focus on norms and the family)

    MIDDLE (Classical Liberal Libertarian)
    1. Cato: Well connected, Republican Libertarians (focus on practical action to minimize government).
    2. The Future of Freedom Foundation   “Individual liberty, free markets, private property and limited government.” The FFF takes its libertarianism very seriously, so much so that even liberals may find themselves nodding while reading.
    3. The Heartland Institute  Moderate libertarianism, go to “PolicyBot”.

    RADICAL (Anarcho Capitalist Libertarian)
    1. Mises Institute : Anarchic Libertarians (focus on eliminating the state )
    2. Property and Freedom Society: (Focus on small private governments similar to monarchies.)

    OTHERS
    • American Enterprise Institute ( focus on entrepreneurship and economics)
    • Independent Institute    Aims to eliminate government influence and 5) interference in all aspects of life.
    • Cascade Policy Institute     Libertarian and oriented toward Oregon, there are broader issues under “Policy Areas”.
    • Institute for Policy Innovation   With the usual emphasis on “lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a smaller, less-intrusive government” pertaining to social security and healthcare, the IPI also addresses intellectual property and technological issues.
    • Lexington Institute    Libertarian views on defense, education, regulation, homeland security, immigration, Cuba and postal reform.


    FULL LISTS
    There are a lot of them and less than half are listed in wikipedia.

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-mainstream-libertarian-thought-and-the-positions-taken-by-Koch-sponsored-organizations

  • Is There A Better Word For Progressive Beliefs Than “progressivism”?

    I WILL TRY TO DO YOUR QUESTION JUSTICE

    (If you think I have then please promote this piece)

    PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE AND THE STATUS QUO
    Progressive and conservative express positions relative to the status quo.
    However, out of repeated use, this term refers to the difference between State control of society (left = totalitarianism), and ‘normative’ control of society (right = libertarianism).


    NOLAN/ASPLUND POLITICAL CHART
    However, the ‘NOLAN CHART’ is a more accurate and sophisticated view of politics as two dimensions.   Left totalitarianism of the state via law, right totalitarianism of ‘norms’, and libertarian totalitarianism of commerce is probably the most accurate way of thinking about political biases.


     





    The problem is. This chart helps you organize political biases, but it doesn’t tell you WHY WE HAVE THEM.   So we need to look at something else. Because it turns out that we don’t, except for the statistically insignificant, ever change our political biases.


    RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ORIGINS
    In my own work, I’ve tried to  show how totalitarian, normative, and libertarian biases tend to originate from different religious and cultural backgrounds in europe.









    FAMILY STRUCTURES
    And Emmanuel Todd’s work shows that these religious structures roughly correspond to our FAMILY structures.  With conservatives in the nuclear family, catholics in the traditional family, jews in the extended family, and muslims in the tribal family.  We are now able to trace the progressive left’s origins as an alliance between Northeast Puritan Women,  The Feminist Movement, and the Jewish Communist Movement.









    So Emmanuel Todd’s map of immigration and family structures, looks much like my map of religious structures (which you can find on the web now in a few places. It seems to be spreading a bit.)

    AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS
    So if you look at these maps of america:







    It’s pretty clear, given everyone’s origins, where their political biases come from: their moral codes reflect their cultural origins,  the relationship between their family structures, moral codes, and economic demands.


    PRACTICAL IMPACT
    If you understand this set of charts, you’ll quickly grasp, that all our political talk is purely entertainment and spent energy. Our political biases, like our moral intuitions, are not voluntarily chosen except at the margins.

    The people who decide elections in america consist of two groups:
    (a) Uninvolved, Uncommitted, and Unaware voters who represent from 7-14% of the populace (depending on who you ask), and who can be swayed by popular opinion and emotion rather than political conviction or reason, and (b) single mothers and young women who now represent a NEW FAMILY STRUCTURE, and who are highly biased toward the state (the left). It is these two groups who determine the outcome of elections, since everyone else is  pretty committed and reasonably evenly distributed. (See Pew research.)

    This is why conservatives use every trick in the book to retain the nuclear family and progressives eery trick in the book to undermine the nuclear family because the nuclear family, and it’s civic independence is the primary threat to state power. Religion has always been an effective means of resisting the western state. And conservatives use this because it means they get to establish their own moral grounds insulated from argument.  Just as progressives try the same by different means.

    SOURCE OF POLITICAL BIASES
    (1) Genetics
    (2) Gender
    (3) Childhood family structure
    (4) Culture
    (5) Environment
    (6) Willful Informed Adult Choice

    GENDER BIASES
    When we created representative democracy the head of household was a male with discretion over family use of property, and was the equivalent of a small or medium sized business owner today. These men had homogenous moral and cultural codes. They had relatively homogenous interests that differed only by scale.  The opposing reproductive and therefore moral intuition for men and women was homogenized by the nuclear family structure.  But the addition of women to the workplace and the voting pool eliminated that compromise. And as each generation passes, women increasingly are either single, or single mothers, and vote the female reproductive bias, which is to bear children and care for them but place responsibility for their support and upkeep on the tribe as much as possible. Other factors matter, but by and large it is women and their preference to press the costs of childrearing on the ‘tribe’ that has determined the gradual leftward motion in america, and left the conservative nuclear family with its emphasis on self reliance in the minority. There are more issues here but I’m attempting to emphasize that our political biases are not the conscious choices that we think they are.  We are incredibly predictable.



    RECOMMENDED READING
    1) “Political Ideologies : An Introduction” by Andrew Heywood.
    Political Ideologies: An Introduction: Andrew Heywood: 9780230367258: Amazon.com: Books

    2) “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt
    The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: Jonathan Haidt: 9780307377906: Amazon.com: Books

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-better-word-for-progressive-beliefs-than-progressivism

  • What Are The Key Differences Between Mainstream Libertarian Thought And The Positions Taken By Koch-sponsored Organizations?

    The Koch’s are irrelevant.  They are just the easiest source of money. But it doesn’t take much money to run a think tank, so there are a lot of them.

    The libertarian spectrum is roughly aligned with the conservative,  Right Libertarian, Left Libertarian, and Anarchist spectrum, and most of us are associated with one or more of the Think Tanks that address the conservative – libertarian spectrum. 


    They are (key players only):



    CONSERVATIVE LIBERTARIAN
    1. The Heritage Foundation : conservative libertarians (focus on norms and the family)

    MIDDLE (Classical Liberal Libertarian)
    1. Cato: Well connected, Republican Libertarians (focus on practical action to minimize government).
    2. The Future of Freedom Foundation   “Individual liberty, free markets, private property and limited government.” The FFF takes its libertarianism very seriously, so much so that even liberals may find themselves nodding while reading.
    3. The Heartland Institute  Moderate libertarianism, go to “PolicyBot”.

    RADICAL (Anarcho Capitalist Libertarian)
    1. Mises Institute : Anarchic Libertarians (focus on eliminating the state )
    2. Property and Freedom Society: (Focus on small private governments similar to monarchies.)

    OTHERS
    • American Enterprise Institute ( focus on entrepreneurship and economics)
    • Independent Institute    Aims to eliminate government influence and 5) interference in all aspects of life.
    • Cascade Policy Institute     Libertarian and oriented toward Oregon, there are broader issues under “Policy Areas”.
    • Institute for Policy Innovation   With the usual emphasis on “lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a smaller, less-intrusive government” pertaining to social security and healthcare, the IPI also addresses intellectual property and technological issues.
    • Lexington Institute    Libertarian views on defense, education, regulation, homeland security, immigration, Cuba and postal reform.


    FULL LISTS
    There are a lot of them and less than half are listed in wikipedia.

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-mainstream-libertarian-thought-and-the-positions-taken-by-Koch-sponsored-organizations

  • Is There A Better Word For Progressive Beliefs Than “progressivism”?

    I WILL TRY TO DO YOUR QUESTION JUSTICE

    (If you think I have then please promote this piece)

    PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE AND THE STATUS QUO
    Progressive and conservative express positions relative to the status quo.
    However, out of repeated use, this term refers to the difference between State control of society (left = totalitarianism), and ‘normative’ control of society (right = libertarianism).


    NOLAN/ASPLUND POLITICAL CHART
    However, the ‘NOLAN CHART’ is a more accurate and sophisticated view of politics as two dimensions.   Left totalitarianism of the state via law, right totalitarianism of ‘norms’, and libertarian totalitarianism of commerce is probably the most accurate way of thinking about political biases.


     





    The problem is. This chart helps you organize political biases, but it doesn’t tell you WHY WE HAVE THEM.   So we need to look at something else. Because it turns out that we don’t, except for the statistically insignificant, ever change our political biases.


    RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ORIGINS
    In my own work, I’ve tried to  show how totalitarian, normative, and libertarian biases tend to originate from different religious and cultural backgrounds in europe.









    FAMILY STRUCTURES
    And Emmanuel Todd’s work shows that these religious structures roughly correspond to our FAMILY structures.  With conservatives in the nuclear family, catholics in the traditional family, jews in the extended family, and muslims in the tribal family.  We are now able to trace the progressive left’s origins as an alliance between Northeast Puritan Women,  The Feminist Movement, and the Jewish Communist Movement.









    So Emmanuel Todd’s map of immigration and family structures, looks much like my map of religious structures (which you can find on the web now in a few places. It seems to be spreading a bit.)

    AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS
    So if you look at these maps of america:







    It’s pretty clear, given everyone’s origins, where their political biases come from: their moral codes reflect their cultural origins,  the relationship between their family structures, moral codes, and economic demands.


    PRACTICAL IMPACT
    If you understand this set of charts, you’ll quickly grasp, that all our political talk is purely entertainment and spent energy. Our political biases, like our moral intuitions, are not voluntarily chosen except at the margins.

    The people who decide elections in america consist of two groups:
    (a) Uninvolved, Uncommitted, and Unaware voters who represent from 7-14% of the populace (depending on who you ask), and who can be swayed by popular opinion and emotion rather than political conviction or reason, and (b) single mothers and young women who now represent a NEW FAMILY STRUCTURE, and who are highly biased toward the state (the left). It is these two groups who determine the outcome of elections, since everyone else is  pretty committed and reasonably evenly distributed. (See Pew research.)

    This is why conservatives use every trick in the book to retain the nuclear family and progressives eery trick in the book to undermine the nuclear family because the nuclear family, and it’s civic independence is the primary threat to state power. Religion has always been an effective means of resisting the western state. And conservatives use this because it means they get to establish their own moral grounds insulated from argument.  Just as progressives try the same by different means.

    SOURCE OF POLITICAL BIASES
    (1) Genetics
    (2) Gender
    (3) Childhood family structure
    (4) Culture
    (5) Environment
    (6) Willful Informed Adult Choice

    GENDER BIASES
    When we created representative democracy the head of household was a male with discretion over family use of property, and was the equivalent of a small or medium sized business owner today. These men had homogenous moral and cultural codes. They had relatively homogenous interests that differed only by scale.  The opposing reproductive and therefore moral intuition for men and women was homogenized by the nuclear family structure.  But the addition of women to the workplace and the voting pool eliminated that compromise. And as each generation passes, women increasingly are either single, or single mothers, and vote the female reproductive bias, which is to bear children and care for them but place responsibility for their support and upkeep on the tribe as much as possible. Other factors matter, but by and large it is women and their preference to press the costs of childrearing on the ‘tribe’ that has determined the gradual leftward motion in america, and left the conservative nuclear family with its emphasis on self reliance in the minority. There are more issues here but I’m attempting to emphasize that our political biases are not the conscious choices that we think they are.  We are incredibly predictable.



    RECOMMENDED READING
    1) “Political Ideologies : An Introduction” by Andrew Heywood.
    Political Ideologies: An Introduction: Andrew Heywood: 9780230367258: Amazon.com: Books

    2) “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt
    The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: Jonathan Haidt: 9780307377906: Amazon.com: Books

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-better-word-for-progressive-beliefs-than-progressivism

  • GEORGE ORWELL DISTILLING JAMES BURNHAM We didn’t get socialism. We didn’t get ca

    GEORGE ORWELL DISTILLING JAMES BURNHAM

    We didn’t get socialism. We didn’t get capitalism. We didn’t get a social democracy. We got an expropriative bureaucracy.

    –“Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralised society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic. The rulers of this new society will be the people who effectively control the means of production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats and soldiers, lumped together by Burnham, under the name of ‘managers’. These people will eliminate the old capitalist class, crush the working class, and so organise society that all power and economic privilege remain in their own hands. Private property rights will be abolished, but common ownership will not be established. The new ‘managerial’ societies will not consist of a patchwork of small, independent states, but of great super-states grouped round the main industrial centres in Europe, Asia, and America. These super-states will fight among themselves for possession of the remaining uncaptured portions of the earth, but will probably be unable to conquer one another completely. Internally, each society will be hierarchical, with an aristocracy of talent at the top and a mass of semi-slaves at the bottom.”–

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-20 13:10:00 UTC

  • “…. democratic politics tends to concentrate benefits and disperse costs, so t

    “…. democratic politics tends to concentrate benefits and disperse costs, so that politicians in both parties face very strong incentives to promise current and future benefits without regard to the costs of those promises.

    Boettke. Hoppe by less antagonistic means. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-20 10:39:00 UTC