Russ Nelson's blog

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Thu, 24 Dec 2009

Strong Feelings

I've been rude to a friend of mine (Simon Phipps) on Twitter. On the one hand, why should I be rude to a friend of mine? On the other hand, if I don't call him out for quoting stupid things (as if he agrees with them), then how much of a friend do I consider him? If I'm not willing to be harsh with him, then I can't value his friendship much. If I'm not able to be harsh with him, then he doesn't value my friendship much.

In particular, I feel very strongly that the wealthy should be responsible for the poor. "Responsible" means several things. First, it means only lending aid appropriately. "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime." It also means charity should only be for the deserving. "Give an ailing man a crutch and you have gotten him back on his feet. Give a healthy man a crutch and you have taken away his ability to walk."

Responsible also means not using the power of wealth against him. This is a tough one. It's very easy to look at someone who is not as wealthy as you, and decide how they need to be helped. Everyone who has more than someone else can fall into this trap. Certainly my country does it all the time, sending food aid to countries that can't use that food, or to countries where their competitive advantage is that food.

And responsible means consistently advocating for free markets (not using the power of wealth) and private property. When my friends harm that cause, I get very upset. I can understand my enemies, and the people that hate me advocating for coercion. But my friends? That cuts me to the quick.

posted at: 05:00 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry

Thu, 17 Dec 2009

Archives

A society of libertarians is not an oxymoron. Libertarians aren't loners; in fact we're usually even more socially oriented than socialists. What we are is individualists; meaning that all relations between individuals should be voluntary. Socialists think that it's acceptable for some relations to happen at the point of a gun. Note that someone may hold individualist and socialist ideas; while they may think of themselves as pragmatic, compromising towards a worthy goal; instead they're just confused. You can't compromise on a principle, otherwise you lose it entirely. For example, it's wrong to kill; thus it's wrong for a group to kill; thus it's wrong for a government to kill; thus capital punishment is wrong. At best it's a cheaper method of life imprisonment -- but when you compromise your principles to save money, you are not principled at all.

posted at: 05:00 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry

My Life Philosophy

All evil starts with one person threatening to hurt another person. The purpose of government is to threaten to hurt people (that's what makes it different from any other organization). Thus, the only way that government can not be evil is if it only threatens to hurt people who threaten to hurt other people. When government undertakes any other activity, it becomes a source of evil.

posted at: 05:00 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry

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