November, 2008

When Corporations Hate Markets: Best of the Blogs

Editor’s note: Every month, we search the blogosphere for the most noteworthy responses to Cato Unbound. The following are just a few from among the extraordinary number of replies that this issue has prompted.
Wirkman Virkkala writes:

I have grave doubts about any left/libertarian alliance. The left is so addicted to moralistic symbolism, group identification, [...]

Read: When Corporations Hate Markets: Best of the Blogs

Better Incentives for Research, Not Perfection

by Dean Baker
The Conversation
November 26th, 2008

I will try to make one quick concluding point in my exchange with Roderick on patents. I realize that he doesn’t like my system because it requires that we tax people to pay for the research. But if he will agree for a moment not to make his perfect the enemy of his good, let [...]

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Free Market Firms: Smaller, Flatter, and More Crowded

by Roderick Long
The Conversation
November 25th, 2008

Our conversation on the relationship between markets and corporations has been attracting comment from around the blogosphere. Since a number of the concerns that have been raised elsewhere are ones that may be of interest to readers of the present exchange, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss a few of them here.
Peter [...]

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Unintended Corporatism

by Steven Horwitz
The Conversation
November 24th, 2008

I think Matt may have misread the argument in my last post, at least on one point. I most definitely was not arguing that the left was the source of the occupational licensure laws that are so problematic for poor Americans. I agree with Matt that this is a classic concentrated benefits and [...]

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Governments Work for Special Interests, Markets Work for Ordinary People

by Roderick Long
The Conversation
November 24th, 2008

As I’m in substantial agreement with Steve Horwitz’s response, I’ll concentrate on the contributions of Yglesias and Baker.
Reply to Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is puzzled by Horwitz’s contention—and by extension my own—that markets are more beneficial than government programs. It’s not so much that he disagrees with it as that it seems to him beside [...]

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The Case for Case-by-Case Evaluation

by Matthew Yglesias
The Conversation
November 20th, 2008

I find Steve Horwitz’s claim that “Markets, including Wal-Mart, have done more for poor Americans than any government program, at least in the long run if not the short run” to be a bit puzzling. If this means that the absence of governance à la Joseph Stalin is a more important determinant of our well-being [...]

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Artistic Freedom Vouchers

by Dean Baker
The Conversation
November 20th, 2008

In response to Roderick’s Round II comment on intellectual property, I don’t see that he has a viable alternative mechanism for financing work that I think we agree must get done. The idea of voluntary payments is intriguing, but can we do that in a way that insures that sufficient funds are devoted to the [...]

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Markets Achieve What the Left Wants Too

by Steven Horwitz
The Conversation
November 20th, 2008

First, I happily accept Roderick’s certification as a “non-vulgar libertarian.” I’m hoping he’ll get me the keys to the secret restroom, which I’m sure is cleaner than those in regular libertarian organizations (and certainly cleaner than those in the statist status quo) because these are cleaned by the owner-worker-managers themselves, rather than through hierarchical [...]

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Owning Ideas Means Owning People

by Roderick Long
Reaction Essay
November 19th, 2008

Timothy Lee writes:  “I can’t agree with Baker that all copyright and patent monopolies are illegitimate.” I’m actually not sure that’s Baker’s view (in his original response Baker remarks in passing, “there may be areas in which patents are an effective policy for promoting innovation”), but it is my view, so let me say briefly why I [...]

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On State Funding and Innovation

by Dean Baker
The Conversation
November 19th, 2008

I am glad to see that Roderick is largely in agreement with my comments on patents and copyrights. As I am afraid that Tim Lee’s comment has misrepresented my views on alternatives to drug patents, I’ll take this opportunity to clarify what I view as the best system.
I do not support a prize system, for [...]

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Keeping Libertarian, Keeping Left

by Roderick Long
The Conversation
November 19th, 2008

As I’ve noted elsewhere: “Part of being a left-libertarian is that on the one hand you’re constantly trying to prod fellow libertarians into moving farther left, while on the other hand you’re constantly trying to show fellow leftists that libertarianism is already farther left than they realise.”
I might add that when you do both [...]

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Cato Scholars Respond

The discussion this month has focused to a greater than usual degree on the activities of certain Cato Institute policy scholars. The editors thought it appropriate to solicit responses, and we present them here in their entirety.

Read: Cato Scholars Respond

Libertarians and Corporate Power: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

by Dean Baker
Reaction Essay
November 17th, 2008

In his response essay, Dean Baker declines to tally up a “score” of how well libertarians, or other groups, have defended a truly impartial, laissez faire economy. Instead, he suggests intellectual property as an obvious area where libertarians must challenge corporate power to distort the market. Patents that make health care more expensive and copyrights that artificially restrict whole areas of our culture are obviously concessions to corporatism, and the “extraordinary abuses” undertaken to enforce these privileges should be vigorously challenged. Although libertarianism has been skeptical of both patents and copyrights, Baker suggests that this is an area deserving still further attention, and one in which liberals could perhaps become solid allies.

Read: Libertarians and Corporate Power: Actions Speak Louder Than Words