 Carpool Lanes
by Joseph Rowlands
Many freeways and major roads have additional lanes set aside for carpools. This acts as a kind of reward system for people to drive with others instead of taking their own cars. The expectation is that it will reduce the number of cars being driven, and it may have environmental impact by reducing the amount of pollut... (Read more...)
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Housing Prices
by Joseph Rowlands
When the housing bubble deflated somewhat, people started panicking over how low the housing prices were dropping. Politicians started looking for ways of improving things. They wanted to prevent banks from foreclosing quickly. They wanted to provide some guaranteed loans. They wanted to lower the interest rate. They w... (Read more...)
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Public Choice Theory is Overlooked
by Tibor R. Machan
Whenever public officials promise to manage affairs of state, I am baffled how they fail to pay heed to public choice theory. This is the idea, for which the late, great James Buchanan, earned his Nobel Prize (an idea he developed with his friend and colleague Gordon Tullock in the book The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy [Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962].). (Read more...)
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Harm and Coercion
by Joseph Rowlands
Discussions of initiations of force are often a little vague in the details. For instance, it is common to regard any use of force as a kind of coercion. This makes some sense as any use of force is a violation of the victim's consent. You are forcing an interaction on them that they wouldn't otherwise choose. But ther... (Read more...)
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A Chronic Liar
by Joseph Rowlands
A friend once told me about a girl who had lied to him. Lying was bad enough, but there was no point to it. The lie had no purpose. When he found out about the one lie, he started checking some of the other things she had told him, and eventually found that she had lied about almost everything. And all of it was equall... (Read more...)
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The Market for Citizenship
by Michael E. Marotta
Why is citizenship different from any other service or commodity? Voting shares (citizenship) could be bought and sold repeatedly. The price of a vote would rise close to elections and fall in the off season. People could change "citizenship" i.e., voting rights often, repeatedly, and for a profit (buy low, sell high).
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How Useful is your Knowledge?
by Joseph Rowlands
When you study a topic in school, how useful is it? Is it something you will end up using? Is it ever relevant? Is it even easy to tell?
... (Read more...)
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Business and Government
by Joseph Rowlands
It's common among the political left to despise and fear large businesses. For a variety of reasons, they believe that to be successful in business, you have to take advantage of others. They think that businesses get special favors and treatment by the government, and that's why they are successful.
... (Read more...)
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Objectivism Mind-Body Dichotomy
by Joseph Rowlands
Let me start by saying that I don't believe that Objectivism, properly understood, has a mind-body dichotomy. In fact, it goes to great lengths to identify the false dichotomy and to make sure to avoid it. But while the theory may avoid it, there is always room for problems in practice.
... (Read more...)
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The Logic of Equalization
by Tibor R. Machan
This morning my TV news station reported on how the Federal Communications Commission drafted an order to visit broadcast newsrooms and make sure they treated news items fairly, that they make balanced presentations of the pros and cons on various public policies. The order was, however, quickly rescinded. It was just a bit too draconian a way for the government of supposedly free country, with an explicit first amendment protecting the freedom of the press, to behave. (Read more...)
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Justice Virtue and Value
by Joseph Rowlands
Justice is often difficult to achieve. If someone betrays you, you probably won't have the opportunity to punish them for the act. Without the ability to use force, interactions between people must be voluntary. And if someone betrayed you, they will be unlikely to provide you the opportunity to return the favor. While... (Read more...)
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The New York Times is Wrong Again
by Tibor R. Machan
The fact is that the libertarianism was the gist of the philosophical foundation of the American political system. Natural individual rights! Limited constitutional government! Free market! Due process of law! (Read more...)
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Different Kinds of Threats
by Joseph Rowlands
The word 'threat' gets used in a lot of different ways which can often obscure facts. This is particularly true when it comes to foreign affairs. If a country declares their intent to destroy another country, you might think this is a clear example of a threat. But many people will ignore these declarations and determi... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 29, 2014 |
The Worst of the State of the Union Address
by Tibor R. Machan
As far as I can tell, the worst idea in President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address went like this: "That's what most Americans want -- for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations." Dead wrong! (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 22, 2014 |
On Principle
by Joseph Rowlands
It's common for people to perform an action while saying they are doing it "on principle". You might refuse to do business with a relative "on principle". You might pay off your own loans in a timely matter "on principle". You might refuse to deal with someone who has betrayed you "on principle". There are countles... (Read more...)
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States of Consciousness
by Joseph Rowlands
I had lunch with a guy who decided to convince me that meditation could lead your mind to achieve a new state of consciousness. Knowing a bit about my philosophical views, he expected some serious resistance to the idea. But instead of arguing, I accepted the possibility that it could happen. And then I explained wh... (Read more...)
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Moral Perfection
by Joseph Rowlands
One interesting question in the field of morality is whether you can be morally perfect or not. Is it even possible? Is it so hard that you shouldn't expect to achieve it? Is it a worthwhile goal? Is someone's moral imperfections a reason to damn them, or something that should be expected and tolerated? The ... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 18, 2013 |
Good Samaritanism must be voluntary
by Tibor R. Machan
Should bystanders be forced to help out or give evidence to the authorities? (Read more...)
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Democracy and Gay Marriages
by Tibor R. Machan
Marriages ought to be a matter of contract and not based on any myth or superstition. Folks should not be interfered with if they want to form a family union, however it is configured, so long as it isn’t some kind of criminal gang. (Read more...)
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Big Moral Stakes
by Joseph Rowlands
There are many people who believe that a cost/benefit analysis is not appropriate for certain moral choices. There is a fear that if an option were viewed in that way, it would lead to behaviors that are widely viewed as immoral. Instead, they desire a kind of moral rule that prevents any weighing of options and dema... (Read more...)
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A Precis on Humanism
by Tibor R. Machan
A humanist argues, not unlike Socrates did, that ethics or morality rests on an understanding of human nature. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 21, 2013 |
Morality as a Given
by Joseph Rowlands
One problem that is all too common is for people to try to explain morality while taking the contents of it for granted. The issue comes up frequently in atheist circles because they don't accept the traditional view of morality as something created by God and learned from religious texts. So they try to come up with... (Read more...)
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My I told you so world.
by Tibor R. Machan
My own special area of concern has been government regulation, that insidious practice of meddling with people’s lives on innumerable fronts, and I have been watching just how addicted some leaders and public philosophers are to the idea. (Read more...)
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Religious Spillover
by Joseph Rowlands
Talking to a religious friend one day, he asked me what was the harm in believing in God. He presented a view of religious that was compartmentalized from the rest of your life. Sure, you believe in a god that created the universe and decides what kind of afterlife you'll live, but it doesn't have to dominate your li... (Read more...)
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Monopoly Money's End: Distributed Digital Currencies
by Dean Michael Gores
Discover the source of the US dollar's value, how its monopoly enforcement is used to steal wealth, and how its monopoly status is coming to an end. (Read more...)
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