November, 2008

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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