David Shemano wrote: > Why would you be interested in what libertarians think about this issue? > Libertarians are free speech absolutists, so there is no issue here for > libertarians. On the other hand, I am SHOCKED liberals and progressives have > an issue with employers talking politics with their employees.... What could > be better than employers and employees standing around the watercooler > engaging each other as citizens concerned about current events?<
This is the major reason I refer to this school as "money libertarians": in addition to being totally in favor of liberating people to use their money any way they want (to the extent that they have money, of course), they ignore the fact that having sufficient money gives the moneyed power over others who don't. As Gene points out, the boss has the power to hire and fire (and to promote or demote), so any "engaging each other as citizens" would be more of a matter of the master asking the servants what they _really_ think. Now this is untrue for very small businesses hiring very skilled workers (as in much of old-fashioned construction, before the big companies take over), but the "small" businesses that the Romster talks about are very large. Another exception occurs when the economy is more than booming and the demand for labor-power is high -- but those exceptions end quickly. The small businesses, of course, lobby to end such episodes quickly. other reasons to call so-called "libertarians" MLers: 1) it distinguishes them from libertarian socialists such as Noam Chomsky, who want to liberate _all_ people, not just those with money. 2) it's a pun in reference to the old kind of MLer, i.e., Marxist-Leninists (Stalinists to my mind). The current crop of money libertarians are very much "vanguardist," using organizations such as the Tea Party and (increasingly) the Republican Party to agitate and propagandize and ultimately to impose their Party Line on the masses. They have such powerful organizations as the IMF, the World Bank, and the European Union on their side. -- Jim Devine / If you're going to support the lesser of two evils, at the very least you should know the nature of that evil. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
