Another note on left & libertarian fusion
Another note on left & libertarian fusion…
Absorb the lessons contained in “Giving Libertarianism a Left Hook” [PDF] by Perry de Havilland of the UK’s Libertarian Alliance.
Excerpt:
Share ThisLet us take the fact that as the airline industries across the world are said to be in dire troubles, various interventionist governments are pouring tax monies into flag carriers to prop them up. This is not really the sort of issue to greatly exercise people on the traditional ‘left’, who view economic intervention as perfectly normal or the ‘right’, who view ‘helping’ companies as perfectly normal, provided they are big companies. However, this issue can indeed be made to resonate with the ‘left’ by framing it precisely in the terms that fit their traditions of thought:
“Yet again the boardroom is using its corrupting influence with politicians to screw the common man and take our tax money to reward poor management by the board and bale out some fat cat shareholders. It is hard to say who is worse, the incompetent directors who did not plan for unforeseen problems, the greedy shareholders or the money-for-the-boys politicians doling out our tax money.”
What have we just done? We have just made a seemingly ‘anti-business’ argument designed to fit within the meta-contextual world view of the left. We have also just made an argument in favour of laissez-faire.
That’s a nice way to look at it.
I found a book called “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill),” by David Cay Johnston, and it might be the sort of thing that could convince progressives/liberals to join the libertarian left. Once they realize that government exists for the rich, maybe they’ll realize that we ought to get rid of it. (Of course, this books seems to suggest that more regulations are the answer, so…)
while I think it’s good that we think of ways I think
>What have we just done? We have just made a seemingly ‘anti-business’ argument designed to fit within the meta-contextual world view of the left. We have also just made an argument in favour of laissez-faire.
is the wrong attitude to have. I think I’m mostly taking issue with the idea that “anti-business” rhetoric is what resonates with the left, rather than the idea of big business predation of lower income people at large.
It’s a little bit insulting (although I’m sure it was unintentional) to give the populist left such shallow intentions as to just hate _business_ in general rather than the idea that the businessmen may be misusing their power and influence.
I also appear to have no idea how to do markup in wordpress.