May, 2007

If We Must Have “Rights,” Don’t Forget the Subscripts

If one says that the minimum wage is coercive, is one saying that the law violates the only true rights (e.g., freedom of contract)?
No.
But Liam continues to write as though someone in this exchange says “yes.”
If the law says employers may not pay less than $X, then, obviously, in one significant sense, employers […]

Read: If We Must Have “Rights,” Don’t Forget the Subscripts

Classical Liberal “Liberty” and the Dangers of Indeterminacy

Liam once again raises the proposition that libertarians and classical liberals do not have any special claim to the use of the term “liberty,” but only can claim use of one peculiar sense of the term, which then has to do battle with others. I disagree with that position. The proposition that each […]

Read: Classical Liberal “Liberty” and the Dangers of Indeterminacy

The Innocuous Indeterminacy of “Liberty”

My main point, that the concepts of coercion and liberty are indeterminate along politically significant fault-lines, seems innocuous enough; but it is not being received that way in this discussion. One wonders why this is, since this simple and hardly deep point is not in itself an objection to anyone’s political theory.
The […]

Read: The Innocuous Indeterminacy of “Liberty”