Posted by Randy Barnett:
Libertarian Stop Signs:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_08-2009_02_14.shtml#1234581075
Blogger [1]BK Drinkwater has a reaction to my post yesterday
analogizing libertarianism first principles to a cheat sheet for a
multiple choice exam:
I�ve always found libertarianism to be an attractive political
philosophy. But since I�m a pretty bad political philosopher�in
fact, I suck at philosophy generally�the libertarian perspective
has a couple of traps. The trap Barnett describes is a particularly
tough one to get out of: once seduced by a libertarian idea, like
�goods and services are produced & distributed more effectively
when markets are not interfered with by coercive agents like
government�, it�s apparently obvious correctness turns it into a
sort of semantic stop sign.
I went through a phase where if, say, education or healthcare
policy came up in conversation, I�d say �Markets! Markets markets
markets! MARKETS!� I found these conversations astonishingly
unproductive, but I didn�t think to blame myself.
Truth is, I didn�t know much about education or healthcare policy.
The semantic stop sign��Markets!��shut down my own investigations
into these matters. I was frustrated that I couldn�t convince
conservatives, social democrats, and socialists to come round to my
view. To myself, I blamed their intransigence. In terms of
Barnett�s analogy, I had the �right answer�, but I couldn�t explain
why it was right, and so I didn�t truly understand the subject
being tested.
I�m slowly maturing. I�ve learned more about education & healthcare
policy. What I�ve learned has moderated my beliefs a little, but I
still claim that our schools and healthcare would benefit from a
policy that lets markets do more of the heavy lifting than they�re
currently able. I�m just better able to argue it now.
I still don�t argue it well�I still don�t know enough. But I�ve run
the stop sign, and I�m no longer stalled. On this issue.
Where are your stop signs? Be honest.
You can comment on his blog post [2]here.
References
1. http://bkdrinkwater.blogspot.com/
2. http://bkdrinkwater.blogspot.com/2009/02/libertarian-stop-signs.html
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