Free Thoughts

Do Republicans who are more libertarian have a better chance of being elected now? How about more extreme progressives? Does this year’s results tell us anything about the 2016 presidential election?What role does messaging and partisanship play in winning elections? What role does money have in influencing elections? More specifically, how much of an effect do campaign contributions have on electoral outcomes, policy outcomes, and issue awareness among policymakers?Show Notes and Further ReadingByron Shafer and William Claggett, The Two Majorities: The Issue Context of Modern American Politics (book)John Sides and Lynn Vavreck, The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (book) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan Russell claims that business ethics is more than just a set of ethical dilemmas. Isn’t that what ethics is about, though? Facing a moral quandary and figuring out how to solve it? How do the teachings of Aristotle tie into all of this? What does it mean to live a good life? What does a wise choice look like?Show Notes and Further ReadingRobert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky, How Much is Enough? (book)Daniel C. Russell, The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics (book)Daniel C. Russell, Happiness for Humans (book)Dan Russell, “Happiness — A Feeling or a Future?” (video) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How does the internet work? Will net neutrality rules cause the internet to be less innovative? Would a non-neutral internet create barriers to market entry? Should the internet be treated like a public utility? What would that look like, and would it work?Show Notes and Further ReadingHal J. Singer, “Net Neutrality: A Radical Form of Non-Discrimination” (2007 article in Regulation magazine)Bruce M. Owen, “Antecedents to Net Neutrality” (2007 article in Regulation magazine)Christopher S. Yoo, “Network Neutrality or Internet Innovation?” (2010 article in Regulation magazine)Gerald R. Faulhaber, “The Economics of Network Neutrality” (2011 article in Regulation magazine)Christopher S. Yoo, “A Clash of Regulatory Paradigms” (2012 article in Regulation magazine)Christopher S. Yoo, “The Questionable Call for Common Carriage” (2014 article in Regulation magazine) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are libertarians isolationists? Why do libertarians seem to disagree so often when it comes to foreign policy? When is it appropriate to go to war? What about humanitarian interventions? If we need to cut spending, should it come out of the military? What do conservatives get wrong about foreign policy? What do liberals/progressives get wrong?Show Notes and Further ReadingJustin Logan, “War’s Declining Significance As A Policy Tool in the Comtemporary Age” (Chapter 8 in Peace, Love, & Liberty)Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan (book)Walter A. McDougall, “Back to Bedrock: The Eight Traditions of American Statecraft” (article in Foreign Affairs)Richard K. Betts, “The Delusion of Impartial Intervention” (article in Foreign Affairs)   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is libertarian paternalism? Is paternalism without coercion even possible? Does it work? Can we trust those who are in charge of creating good “choice architecture” to be better at their jobs than any typical bureaucrat? How do we know what someone’s “true preferences” are? And don’t these sort of “nudges” strip people of their agency?Show Notes and Further ReadingCass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (book)Bill Glod, The Limits of Libertarian Paternalism (interview with Glen Whitman)Slippery Slopes and the New Paternalism (Cato Unbound Series) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What drives us to be concerned about others? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith says people are basically self-interested, and this is what drives market economies. Does this mean he’s saying people are selfish? Smith has a pretty simple formula for happiness. “Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.” What does he mean by that? Can the study of economics really be about finding better ways to care for others…by recognizing that people are self-interested? How does that work?Show Notes and Further ReadingRussell Roberts, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness (book)Adam Smith, The Weath of Nations (book)Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (book) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What’s the proper scope of criminal law, from a libertarian point of view? Why does America lead the world in incarceration rates? How is the federal War on Drugs affecting our legal system?Burrus and Lynch explain how policies like mandatory minimum sentencing and three strike laws erode civil liberties and talk about the proliferation of strict liability standards in criminal law. They also discuss the effects tactics like police militarization and no-knock raids have on small communities like Ferguson, Missouri and the more generalized problem of police misconduct in America. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Kopel joins us this week for a discussion on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: the right to keep and bear firearms. Aaron and Trevor introduce the debate over gun rights in America today by asking questions: Why allow people to own guns at all? Aren’t we past that point as a civilization? Does having more guns around actually reduce crime? How many crimes each year are stopped by guns…and how many don’t occur in the first place because criminals think their victims could have guns? Is it worth the risk to have guns in the home? Are public health concerns about gun ownership well-founded? Assault weapons—what are they and why do American gun control groups want to ban them in particular? And if the Second Amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms, what’s to stop an individual from owning something like a tank or a personal rocket launcher?Show Notes and Further ReadingDavid B. Kopel, The Truth About Gun Control (book)John R. Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and

If the government’s been spying on us for decades, what’s new now? Why is bulk data collection so particularly nefarious? What is metadata anyway, and what does the government do with it? Does the government actually catch terrorists through mass surveillance? Why do people treat terrorism differently from other violent crimes? The defenders of surveillance say that “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of,” but does this justification hold water? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Michael Huemer claims that if normal people acted like governments do, we would generally be horrified and find their behavior morally contemptible…so why do most people intuitively feel that government is justified in its actions? Professor Huemer, Aaron, and Trevor tackle problems of political obligation, political legitimacy, and political authority, and explain the differences between each of these terms.Show Notes and Further ReadingMichael Huemer, The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey (book)Michael Huemer, Ethical Intuitionism (book)Prof. Huemer’s personal web site. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus tackle listener questions in this episode, including a few perennial classics: If libertarianism is so great, where are all the libertarian countries? Why can’t libertarians, conservatives, and liberals all come together to “make it work” in Washington? How can access to education be guaranteed if the American education system is privatized? And what happens to people who “fall through the cracks” in a libertarian society without a government-provided social safety net?Aaron and Trevor are also joined by David Boaz, the executive vice president of the Cato Institute.Show Notes and Further ReadingDavid Boaz, Libertarianism: A Primer (book)Salon, “The question libertarians just can’t answer” (article)The Guardian, “YA dystopias teach children to submit to the free market, not fight authority” (article)Harvey Silverglate, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (book)Jon Osborne, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film and Video (book)Ira Levin, This Perfect Day (book)Terry Gil

George Selgin joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on money and banking in the United States.What is money? How did the government become so deeply ingrained in the production and supply of our money, and why? What is the Federal Reserve, and what does it actually do? What would the U. S. look like with a competitive currency system? And what about Bitcoin?Show Notes and Further ReadingGeorge Selgin, Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 (book)George Selgin, The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard in the United States (policy analysis)R. A. Radford, The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp (article) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Why did the court seem to rule on the side of free markets and limited government this time around? Is this the most libertarian Court to date?Show Notes and Further ReadingBurwell v. Hobby Lobby (Obamacare)NLRB v. Noel Canning (recess appointments)Harris v. Quinn (unionizing home health care workers)Riley v. California (cell phone searches)McCutcheon v. FEC (campaign finance) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Greg Lukianoff joins us for a discussion about the state of free speech on college campuses in the United States. We talk about campus speech codes, the constitutionality of “free speech zones,” chilling effects of trigger warnings, and more. What are the larger effects that these campus restrictions have on our society?Show Notes and Further ReadingGreg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (book)Greg Lukianoff, Freedom From Speech (book coming Sept. 2014)Alan Charles Kors and Harvey Silverglate, The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses (book)Dinesh D’Souza, Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (book)Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students (book)Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (book) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does this “Fifth Wave” mean for democracy? Is this a change libertarians should feel good about? Will it lead to more freedom?Show Notes and Further ReadingMartin Gurri, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (book)A selection from the book is available here: “How a Tsunami of Information Inspired the Revolt of the Public”James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (book)Martin Gurri blogs at The Fifth Wave. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Clark Neily joins us this week for a discussion on judicial engagement. Neily contrasts judges’ findings in cases with stringent standards of review—which he characterizes as a genuine quest for the truth from a truly neutral adjudicator, decided on the basis of evidence—with what he calls judicial abdication: the tendency of judges to default to a rational basis review of speculative justification by the government. They also discuss the right to earn a living, judicial activism, and the defining essence of the Constitution.Show Notes and Further ReadingClark Neily, Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government (book)Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law (book)Clark Neily is on Twitter at @ConLawWarrior. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Neal McCluskey joins us this week for a discussion about public education in America. He shares its history, from the “Old Deluder Satan Law” of 1647 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the current debate over policies like No Child Left Behind and the Common Core. He also talks about public schooling’s inherent pitfalls and shares different proposals for infusing school choice into the current system.What’s wrong with public education? Why doesn’t it work as well as we’d like? Why can’t we just solve public schools’ problems with increased funding?Show Notes and Further ReadingNeal McCluskey, Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education (book) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Doug Bandow joins Aaron and Trevor to talk about the political philosophy of libertarianism and and the religion of Christianity. What, if any, is the relationship between the two? Are there things within the Christian tradition—within Christian scripture—that support libertarianism?Show Notes and Further ReadingDoug Bandow, Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (book)Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (book)The Bible (New International Version) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Megan McArdle joins us to talk about her new book The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success (2014). We don’t tend to think of failure as a good thing. But McArdle says that recognizing failure—and in some cases embracing it—is a crucial part of what makes American culture, markets, and society successful. But she also says we’re getting worse at dealing with failure. Is the world too fragile to tolerate failure now?Show Notes and Further ReadingMegan McArdle, The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success(book)Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World (book)Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (book)Bruce M. Hood, SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelieveable (book) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Walter Olson joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on the evolution of discrimination law in the American legal system. They talk about common carrier obligations, preferential treatment and employee discrimination suits, the disparate impact of anti-discrimination laws—especially in hiring decisions—and the role of law schools and academia in perpetuating this cycle.What happens when laws create more injustice than they fix? Is America “overlawyered”? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.