The Machinery of Freedom/animated lecture
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Claims
- The term "liberalism" was stolen by the enemies of liberalism; modern libertarians are the true liberals.
- Libertarianism (formerly called liberalism) is the philosophy that supports small government and free markets.
- Libertarianism holds that the function of government is to do a few things that can't be done by individuals associating voluntarily in private markets:
- police
- courts
- national defense
- Where the same thing can be done either by government or privately, private is always better.
- The basic functions of government can be handled privately:
- police (enforcing laws)
- individuals hire private firms (rights enforcement agencies - REAs) to protect their rights and settle their disputes with other individual
- objection (DF): conflict between REAs
- response: violence is expensive -- REAs are not likely to use it to settle conflicts because in the long term it's a losing proposition with uneven results -- so REAs will agree to arbitration.
- objection (W): What if an REA is unreasonable?
- objection (DF,W): What if two REAs can't agree on an arbiter? (e.g. what if one REA's customers prefer a death penalty, while another REA's customers are opposed?)
- DF responds with an argument that has something to do with raising prices in response to demand and/or buying the acquiescence of the other and/or its customers. This doesn't really answer the question.
- response: violence is expensive -- REAs are not likely to use it to settle conflicts because in the long term it's a losing proposition with uneven results -- so REAs will agree to arbitration.
- objection (DF): conflict between REAs
- individuals hire private firms (rights enforcement agencies - REAs) to protect their rights and settle their disputes with other individual
- courts (making laws)
- REAs hire arbitration agencies (AAs) to settle their disputes with other REAs
- objection (DF): who enforces the AA-mediated agreements between REAs?
- response: the discipline of constant dealings
- objection: ...which requires a highly stable, non-transient society
- response: the discipline of constant dealings
- objection (DF): who enforces the AA-mediated agreements between REAs?
- REAs hire arbitration agencies (AAs) to settle their disputes with other REAs
national defense(not covered)
- police (enforcing laws)
- It's okay for different sets of people/entities to operate under different sets of rules, because:
- any rules applicable to any given interaction can be worked out and agreed to non-coercively via this method
- rules will be more closely tailored to the needs of the people ruled by them
- Rules created by private negotiation will be better than those produced by government because private is better.
- Private markets produce better products than socialist systems do -- "we expect markets to produce better cars than socialist systems".
- Objection: it's not clear what definition of "socialism" he's using here.
- Europe (especially Sweden) is often called "socialist", but they produce pretty good cars.
- Objection: it's not clear what definition of "socialism" he's using here.
Pages
- /transcription: a complete transcription of the lecture in the video