Ilya Somin over at Volokh had a
long essay commenting on the
debate at Reason magazine about whether libertarians should ally with liberals or conservatives. (The participants were Cato's Brink Lindsey, NRO's Jonah Goldberg, and Matt Kibbe, coauthor with Dick Armey of the soon-to-be-published
Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.) Ilya's post drew over 200 comments, so the the post, original debate, and comments could keep you busy a long time.
I did want to pass on a few stray lines, not from the pros, but just the regular folk writing in the comments, that I thought useful.
most liberals compare real markets to idealized governments.
and
A benevolent government is better than a malevolent market, but neither of those extremes exist. Those that pretend they exist are delusional, and solutions that rely on their existence are doomed to failure.
most liberals compare real markets to idealized governments.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, the Commies likewise compared their ideals to actual capitalism. That was a good marketing move, as the Gulag and famine-producing collective farms would not have been good talking points for their side.
A benevolent government is better than a malevolent market, but neither of those extremes exist.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, nobody doubts the existence of malevolent governments but I'd challenge anybody to come up with real life example of a malevolent market.