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July 20, 2017

To the Editor:

Democracy in Chains author Nancy MacLean misrepresents my criticism of her connecting the work of my late colleague James Buchanan to that of John C. Calhoun (Nancy MacLean Responds to Her Critics, The Chronicle Review, July 19). My criticism is not that she drew a parallel between Buchanans political economy and that of John C. Calhoun. Instead, my criticism as I say plainly in the essay linked in your report is of her claim that the core ideas of Buchanan (and of others scholars who work in Buchanans tradition) come from John C. Calhoun. Had MacLean merely drawn a parallel between Buchanans efforts to study and compare different constitutional rules and Calhouns similar efforts, Id have raised no protest. But by asserting in her interview with the New Republic that Buchanans ideas trace back to John C. Calhoun andin her book describing Calhoun as the intellectual lodestar of Buchanan and others who work in the classical-liberal tradition she is demonstrably mistaken.

First, Buchanan never mentions Calhoun in any of his vast writings. Second, in an appendix to The Calculus of Consent his most famous book (co-authored with Gordon Tullock) Buchanan not only explicitly identifies several political thinkers as inspiration (nearly all of whom, by the way, pre-date Calhoun), he also explains in detail how their works influenced his own; these explicitly identified precursors to Buchanans political thought include Johannes Althusius, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Wilhelm von Humboldt, James Madison, and Baruch Spinoza. Again, they do not include Calhoun.

Somehow overlooking Buchanans own very clear mention of the thinkers whose ideas he found to be especially influential, MacLean contrary to all available evidence claimed in her book and in her interview that the major inspiration for Buchanans ideas is Calhoun. That claim is not only unsubstantiated, it is preposterous.

Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, Va.

Originally posted here:
Author's Claim That Calhoun Was Major Inspiration for Nobel-Winning Libertarian Is Absurd - The Chronicle of Higher Education (blog)

Nancy MacLeans Democracy in Chains portrays the late economist James Buchanan as a central figure in the modern libertarian movement. An individual can be influential in different ways; he can be an institution-builder, inspire strategy, or directly influence other activists and movement intellectuals with his ideas. MacLean suggests that Buchanan was a supremely important institution-builder and strategy-inspirer, though I think she greatly exaggerates his role in both spheres.

But what of his direct influence on activists and movement intellectuals? As I noted in my first post on the book, my impression is that Buchanan was a peripheral or tangential figure in the development of modern libertarianism. It eventually occurred to me that there is at least one objective contemporary indicator that I am right.

In 1988, Liberty Magazine surveyed its readers regarding which important figures influenced their political views. Liberty was a small-circulation libertarian magazine that, unlike the outreach Reason magazine, was written to appeal to activist libertarians, the sort of people who work at think tanks, who are active in the Libertarian Party, or who promote libertarian causes like drug legalization. It wasnt a scientific survey but still provides some interesting data.

Buchanan won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1986. MacLean claims that this advanced the cause as nothing else had to that point. Strange that hard-core activist libertarians didnt notice. The editors explained how they chose the names on the survey list: The names were chosen during the editorial meeting attended by Cox, Bradford, Holmes and Virkkala. An attempt was made to include on the list the most important contributors to libertarian thought, as well as figures believed by the editors to be influential among libertarians, and some individuals about whose influence that the editors were simply curious. James Buchanan wasnt on the list.

This could have been an oversight, but apparently not. Readers wrote in several names multiple times, including such now-forgotten figures as Robert Ringer, and even Buchanans sometime collaborator, Gordon Tullock. Buchanan wasnt among the write-ins, either.

For the curious, the most influential modern libertarians, in order, were Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman. Note that contrary to MacLeans (almost entirely undocumented) suggestion that libertarianism was motivated to a large degree by Southern hostility to desegregation in general and Brown v. Board of Education in particular, none of these figures were Southerners, 60 percent of them were European refugees, 80 percent (all but Hayek, who had Jewish relatives) were Jews, and all lived in Chicago or New York.

Its also worth noting that despite MacLeans tracing of libertarianisms lineage to John Calhoun, he also unlike other historical figures such as Locke, Jefferson and abolitionist Lysander Spooner does not appear on the list.

Read the original here:
How influential was James Buchanan among libertarians? - Washington Post

With our second anniversary coming up later this year, the Board and senior management of Being Libertarian would like to extend a thank you to all our loyal followers who have helped make our once-humble platform a true hub for the international libertarian movement.

In light of our momentous growth and expansion, Being Libertarian will be ceasing most activity, including the posting of new images, articles, and videos across our platforms. This will, however, only be for a short period of time, as the senior management engages with one another on our path forward. The structures which were created almost two years ago are not keeping up with our growth and professionalization in all the respects they should be, so the Board is going to readjust and reconsider various elements of Being Libertarians constitution and operations.

While no new content will be created for the next while, followers of Being Libertarian on Facebook will be treated to some of our older articles and videos from our impressive archive of content. We encourage you to continue engaging, and thank you again for your continued support.

Martin van Staden is the Editor in Chief of Being Libertarian.

This post was written by Martin van Staden.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Martin van Staden is the Editor in Chief of Being Libertarian, the Legal Researcher at the Free Market Foundation, a co-founder of the RationalStandard.com, and the Southern African Academic Programs Director at Students For Liberty. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not represent any of the aforementioned organizations.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Being Libertarian 'Going Dark' in Light of Corporate Readjustment - Being Libertarian

CEDAR RAPIDS The politics-as-usual approach to state government by Republicans and Democrats is unsustainable and hurting vulnerable Iowans, according to Jake Porter, a Libertarian who is joining the race for governor.

Were having this huge budget crisis, and I dont see other candidates proposing real changes, Porter said Tuesday.

Instead, Statehouse lawmakers and the governor are using the budget as a weapon, according to Porter, who will formally announce his candidacy on The Simon Conway Show on WHO Radio between 4 and 7 p.m. Thursday.

Theyve decided were having a budget crisis, so were going to cut the services people use most, whether its mental health services, sexual abuse hotlines, domestic abuse shelters (or) hearing aids for kids, Porter said.

Theyre not actually going after any of the waste that could easily be cut. Theyre going after the things that are going to hurt the most people, probably as an excuse to raise the sales tax next year.

Porter, 29, a Council Bluffs business consultant long active in the Libertarian Party, previously ran for secretary of state. He thinks his views and priorities are more closely aligned with voters than either the Democratic or Republican platform.

He wants to make medical cannabis available, restore voting rights for felons who have served their time, end corporate welfare, return Medicaid to its pre-privatization status and phase out the state sales tax.

He opposes corporate welfare on libertarian principles. Its wrong, Porter said, to ask Iowans to pay millions of dollars to financially sound corporations. He singled out the Research Activities Credit that refunds tax money to corporations even if they have no tax liability.

Theyve put the tax bill on the smallest Iowans and smallest companies, he said. I dont think the state should favor one business over another.

Porter called turning over Medicaid management to private companies an example of big government cronyism by former Gov. Terry Branstads administration. He would return management responsibility to the Department of Human Services and then make improvements.

The state has messed around for far too long while people who could benefit from medical cannabis have suffered, Porter said. While he would favor legalization of marijuana for recreational use, I dont think the Legislature is going to pass that.

Despite the changes the Legislature has made, current law makes it difficult, nearly impossible, for Iowans who need cannabidiol to get it, he said.

As a Libertarian, Porter said, he would have the advantage of being able to work with and around the major political parties by using the governors bully pulpit to open a dialogue with voters and pressure lawmakers to act on his priorities.

As governor, you can go around and talk about issues and you can pound the issues until (lawmakers) basically have to do something about it, he said.

Porter said his campaign website, jakeporter.org, will go live Thursday afternoon.

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Libertarian gubernatorial candidate calls for 'real changes' - Southernminn.com

Being Libertarian has learned of the following provisions and amendments that were attached to the Obamacare repeal and replace bill, titled American Health Care Act of 2017, that compelled GOP Senators Rand Paul, Jerry Moran, Mike Lee and Susan Collins to publicly declare their no votes:

Moran: objected to an amendment by Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe that would add household pets to the individual mandate. The wording on this amendment is unclear. I assume my cat Mittens would be included as a household pet but what about my African Grey parrot Toto or my childrens guinea pigs Laurel and Hardy? This veterinary insurance amendment raises too many questions and provides very few answers, Moran stated.

Collins: objected to raising taxes on selective cosmetic surgery. You may not think that Maine has a high population of reality TV stars and middle aged divorcees looking for love in all the wrong places, but I will not vote for anything that places a further burden on my constituents, Collins said..

Lee: objected to a descending graduated scale of premium coverage for households with more than six children. Im horny AF, Lee tweeted.

Paul: objected to the removal of subsidies for transition lens eyeglasses and a redistributive tax on hair straightening shampoos. Federal Reserve blah, Constitution blah blah, my dad blah blah blah, Paul said in an interview on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

***

Heres the third paragraph from a CNN article that describes how the Senate GOP bill fell apart:

Across town, over rosemary-grilled rib eye and summer vegetable succotash at the White House, President Donald Trump and GOP leaders were attempting to convince a group of reliably conservative rank-and-filers to join with them and vote for the health care bill. But as they dined on lemon ricotta agnolotti with heirloom tomato ragout and the farm stand peach cobbler, the Senate rebellion against the health care bill was well underway.

Its no wonder those Republican senators jumped ship: you dont serve lemon ricotta agnolotti with heirloom tomato ragout! Thats way too acidic. To make agnolotti sing, you collaborate it with an artichoke basil reduction. Anything else is simply uncivilized.

Furthermore, as shown in the picture of the menu Texas Senator John Cornyn put on his Instagram account, J. Rochioli Chardonnay River Block 2007 and Lewis Cellars Cabernet Napa 2004 were served. This is just more proof of the ineptitude of the Trump Administration. You dont pair rib eye steak with Chardonnay, just as you never drink red wine with fish, or have we all forgotten the lesson of the 007 classic From Russia With Love? I daresay this ignorant pairing conveys how insidious the Russian influence on the Trump Administration really is. And everyone knows 2004 was a terrible year for California Cabernets. Good God, no wonder the French hate us and why so many other countries no longer view the United States as the worlds lone superpower.

***

Ryan McMaken nails it:

Thanks to more than 70 years of government meddling, the American healthcare system was already broken long before Obamacare came along. Decades of massive subsidy programs have accelerated price growth and favored certain monopolistic health care providers that cater to government programs. Governments have also limited supply of basic coverage by imposing an endlessly growing regime of regulations on the industry. Prior to the 1960sbefore the introduction of Medicare and Medicaidhealthcare prices had been stable. They have since exploded.

The ways that the healthcare system is structured, regulated, and controlled by state intervention are so vast and varied as to be impossible to even describe in limited space. The very fact that we think of healthcare as a type of insurance is itself a government creation, as is the entire licensing and regulatory monolith that so severely limits services.

Because of this, returning to the status quo of eight years ago would hardly be a victory for freedom and free markets. Moreover, the United States has been one of the biggest spenders on healthcare in the world per capita. With the exception of Norway, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, the United States tops every other nation in terms of the size of its healthcare welfare state. These trends pre-date Obamacare.

McMaken essentially writes that Republicans shouldnt even bother to repeal Obamacare since it is just one more in a long line of fixes.

Obamacare is the amputation of a limb that has contracted gangrene from a previous surgery to set a broken bone.

***

And thats the way it is, as far as you know.

Image: HuffPo

This post was written by Dillon Eliassen.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Dillon Eliassen is the Managing Editor of Being Libertarian. Dillon works in the sales department of a privately owned small company. He holds a BA in Journalism & Creative Writing from Lyndon State College, and needs only to complete his thesis for his Masters of English from Montclair State University (something which his accomplished and beautiful wife, Alice, is continually pestering him about). He is the author of The Apathetic, available at Amazon.com. He is a self-described Thoreauvian Minarchist.

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Shortcuts & Delusions: We're All Gonna Die! Part 2 - Being Libertarian