Categories:
Political Economy
Michael Strong has an interesting guest post at a new blog on competitive government. He writes,
Another direction that I’ve been encouraging libertarians to consider is the option of a global free zone industry in which private corporations specialize not only in supplying physical infrastructure, but also in supplying legal infrastructure.
In another post, Patri Friedman writes,
The world is getting on net freer because of the the large improvements as countries become democracies, but we should not let this trend, or the trend towards increased material wealth, mask the countervailing trend towards the capture of democracies by special interests at the expense of the full population.
READER COMMENTS
Dan Weber
Apr 10 2009 at 3:30pm
I think people have gained political and social freedoms and lost economic freedoms over the last few centuries. But the lost economic freedoms are less than the increase in general wealth, so it’s been a net win.
Steve
Apr 18 2009 at 10:41am
When people loose economic freedom,ie, a way to make a living,and they begin to starve and live in poverty political and “social” freedoms no longer matter and are often lost in the attempt to regain the ability to survive…in the end it’s about survival but abundance and wealth for a period of time causes people to forget that and alo forget what makes it possible,they become fanciful and care free in their thinking and logic and must learn once again what realy matters.
Dirtyrottenvarmint
Apr 20 2009 at 4:42pm
How can one have a meaningful discussion regarding whether freedom or liberty has net increased or decreased, without first defining what is meant by “freedom” or “liberty”?
What is the meaning of the word “freedoms”? Can one be frees? Freeds?
Steve
Apr 20 2009 at 7:21pm
The pitfall of defining freedom and liberty is the risk of a narrow subjective definition,the definition should be such that it’s only limits are direct negative effects on others,not contrived or wildly exaggerated effects created by those who just don’t like the behaviour or would not choose it for themselves…the exception being children who are not mature enough to consider all the consequnces of and given behaviour.
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