Tomorrow I’ll be hanging out with blogger Noah Smith all day. Have any questions you’d like me to ask him? With his permission, I’ll share responses.
Earnest questions only, please.
Sep 12 2013
I often appeal to the forced organ donation hypothetical. See for example my common-sense case for pacifism. But what precisely is the hypothetical? Here's an excellent explanation, courtesy of Judith Jarvis Thomson:[I]magine yourself to be a surgeon, a truly great surgeon. Among other things you do, ...
Sep 12 2013
We solve: "In the beginning was the Payoff." Immediately I stop. Did I just quaff? A one-time buzz is too specific; The inception could be more generic. It must be wishful free and stark attentive; Perhaps: "In the beginning there was Incentive." Let's weigh again. Ponder that line which covers all In case...good lord,...
Sep 11 2013
Tomorrow I'll be hanging out with blogger Noah Smith all day. Have any questions you'd like me to ask him? With his permission, I'll share responses.Earnest questions only, please.
READER COMMENTS
Adam Ozimek
Sep 11 2013 at 4:52pm
I’ve asked myself not “What question do I want Noah Smith to answer?” but “What question do I want Noah Smith to answer when Bryan Caplan is there to discuss his answer?”.
What can we learn about American poverty by looking at poverty in Japan?
Noah Yetter
Sep 11 2013 at 5:04pm
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/triangle-man-and-libertarians.html
Why should we listen to anything he says when he so mendaciously misrepresents his ideological opponents?
And yes that is a serious question. His description of libertarianism is such a caricature, so far disconnected from anything vaguely resembling reality, that I can only conclude it to be deliberate. That would make him a hack, not worthy of any attention on any topic for any reason.
David R. Henderson
Sep 11 2013 at 6:07pm
@Bryan,
Yes. Here’s my question. And I don’t think I need to suggest follow-ups because you’re very good at figuring those out.
I read the link that Noah Yetter posted above and reading that led me to ask the following:
“Would you, Noah, oppose having the government force people in the wedding photography business to take wedding photos of people at a gay marriage ceremony?”
If you read Noah’s post, you’ll see why I ask that.
If Noah responds that no one is requiring that, then show him this link.
perfectlyGoodInk
Sep 11 2013 at 8:49pm
In that link above, it seems like Noah is arguing against the paleo-libertarians courted by Ron Paul in his newsletters. That group does seem to weaken the federal bully to get out of the way of local bullies in their attempts to institutionalize racism.
This is why I’m sympathetic with Steve Horwitz’s argument that the libertarian movement ought to distance itself from that group, but I imagine Bryan will represent libertarians to him much better.
John Soriano
Sep 11 2013 at 9:09pm
Which historical and current libertarian and/or conservative thinkers does he respect the most and find the most reasonable (or least objectionable)?
Also, what straw men does he think his personal critics are most guilty of?
James
Sep 11 2013 at 9:14pm
In a setting with policies nothing like whatever Noah favors, would Noah see bad events as evidence against his preferred policies? On at least a few occasions, Noah has cited problems arising in very non-libertarian settings as evidence against libertarianism. Offhand, I can think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the violence of Tamerlane.
What should we assume is the objective function of government (or voters, appointed officials, etc.) when we try to anticipate the consequences of different policy options?
Historically, there have been plenty of cases of groups that Noah would call “bullies” using governments to do their bullying. How high is the probability that, to borrow Noah’s analogy, Universe Man will collude with Triangle Man? How much higher would that probability have to be for Noah to give up on progressivism?
Eric Falkenstein
Sep 11 2013 at 10:15pm
Are you concerned that blogging has brought vulgar Keynesian logic back into the mainstream, making an end-run around the macro theoretical vanguard? That is, when forced into general equilibrium models simple Patinkin-style logic don’t follow. Back in the 80s and 90s, everyone knew undergraduate Keynesian analysis was partial equilibrium analysis, but now Krugman, DeLong et al say it’s top-shelf and so that’s good enough for most journalists and bloggers.
Keynesians talk about stupid zombie economics getting in the way. Aren’t the Phillips curve, government multipliers>1, and G=I, the ultimate zombie ideas?
Scott Sumner
Sep 11 2013 at 10:58pm
Ask him if he understands why Krugman’s blogging style is unethical.
kebko
Sep 12 2013 at 12:13am
David,
Looks like Noah picked a very unfortunate example! Off topic of Noah, but on the topic of the NM ruling, I always think it’s interesting that these laws and rulings only apply to employers and producers. For instance, Noah would be correct that nobody is clamoring to make photographers work for gay shop owners, or to make straight couples hire gay photographers, or to make the photographer’s assistants work at gay wedding jobs, etc.
All of these things could be just as important for social justice as constrictions on producers. This seems to be a universal facet of civil rights rulings and legislation, that they apply to the state and to producers and employers, but not to any other private parties.
Progressives, I suspect, naturally see this as a power struggle. As a libertarian, it just looks like anti-Bourgeois posturing.
Noah is probably right that a minister wouldn’t have to perform the ceremony. Religious people have rights. The photographer is in the realm of commerce, where the point of these rulings is to undermine rights.
If that couple had to face the same legal ramifications in marriage that an employer does in hiring, they would probably choose to just cohabitate.
John S
Sep 12 2013 at 9:03am
Please ask Noah what he thinks of George Selgin and Larry White’s research which shows that free banking systems performed well in Scotland and Canada and only ended due to political, rather than economic, circumstances (the Bank Charter Act of 1844 and the creation of the Bank of Canada in 1935).
If he cites the US free banking experience, please inform him of the restrictions on branch banking (and resultant over-reliance on NY correspondent banks) and bond collateral requirements in excess of 100% on private banknote issuance (resulting in an inelastic money supply) which kept the US system from functioning as smoothly as Canada’s concurrent system.
Thanks for this, looking forward to your discussion, Bryan.
Tom Jackson
Sep 12 2013 at 6:06pm
I know that Noah Smith believes solar power is becoming more feasible economically as an important power source. What does he think of NASA scientist Geoffrey Landis’ proposal to position solar power satellites in space so that they can beam power to earth when the power will command the best price?
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/library/2004-NASA-ReinventingTheSolarPowerSatellite.pdf
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