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Sunday, March 24, 2019

Post #4035 Social Media Edition

Normally I wouldn't have published this format so quickly after a prior post, but I was motivated by a Facebook non-comment the other day. What does that mean? On more than one occasion, I've left my Facebook page to research a planned comment. (Including my published articles and book chapters, I will often cite supporting material.) I'll return to my Facebook to discover the original post is not available in my interim refreshed feed. Now in most cases, I remember the group publishing the post in question, will go to their homepage and search for post. In this case it was one of several newer, smaller libertarian feeds I've subscribed to, and I wasn't motivated enough to chase down the original post.

Facebook (the unpublished post)

[OP]  (paraphrased). Libertarians often refer to themselves by a number of differing terms, e.g., agorists, objectivists, minarchists, ancaps (anarcho-capitalist), left-libertarian (commonly-held property), right-libertarian, classical liberal, etc.  How do you members of this group classify yourselves?

[I did not go through all responses, but looked to the first few dozens or so and saw a clear plurality of minarchists.]

[In reality, my post would have been pithy. I'm taking the liberty of expanding on my intended comment.]

I'm a minarchist who has alternatively called himself a classical liberal, firmly in the property-rights dominant right-libertarian movement. The term "classical liberal" is distinct from progressive or social liberalism, where the authority of limited government as guarantor of negative rights (protection from infringements of fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property from government and others)  is extended to embrace some form of government-guaranteed socioeconomic egalitarianism. This schism had its origins in the nineteenth century. We classical liberals particularly focuses on economic liberty; one example was the infamous Lochner decision, where NY has implemented a cap on baker hours. (To be honest, SCOTUS decisions were nuanced on economic liberty; for instance, it had earlier upheld restrictions on mining hours.)

Minarchists generally believe in some variation of the night-watchman state, whereby the moral authority of the state/government is its defense of natural rights, e.g., with common defense/police and a court system. A classical liberal approach  has a somewhat expanded view of public institutions and goods (e.g., infrastructure), with more efficient mechanism for dealing with negative externalities, etc.(cf e.g., Epstein).

Still, I draw the line by those who would include Hamilton and Lincoln were classic liberals or even that Trump is a libertarian President. All 3 of those have implemented or argued for protectionist policies, often at the expense of lower-income workers.

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Courtesy of the original artist via FB (YAL)

Courtesy of the original artist via FB (YAL)

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