[ExI] Usages of the term libertarianism

[Kelly Anderson]

On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 12:18 PM, Damien Sullivan
<phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Non-legal barriers would be high capital requirements, economies of
> scale, and the ability to use price dumping to drive new competitors out
> of business.  Which last is perfectly libertarian.

Correct. Price dumping and monopolies are within the libertarian tent.
Personally, I think there needs to be SOME law preventing people from
unfair practices. For example, the insider trading and market
manipulation practices that were employed by Joe Kennedy in the 1920s
should not be allowed. Bernie Madoff type cons as well as pyramid
schemes should be illegal. These can be covered by the "interstate
commerce" clause, or state laws.

Perhaps I deviate from a pure libertarian position here, but it is one
place where your fist has clearly entered the space formerly occupied
by my nose.

The laws necessary to maintain fairness are probably one tenth of the
laws currently on the books.

Other laws that are reasonable are some laws protecting the safety and
health of workers. OSHA is a pain in the ass, but you need some level
of protection for the physical safety of workers.

I also support food safety laws. Someone needs to watch that sort of thing.

I could be supportive of some kind of cap and trade type mechanism to
avoid pollution, but it would have to have a lot of details different
than the current proposed system. For example, the currently proposed
mechanism seems to be just a way to move money to Africa and other
underdeveloped third world nations. We know what happens to money that
goes in the front door in Africa, and I don't want African war lords
to become the next set of Arab Sheiks. A system within a country seems
to make sense to me. I would also want it to cover all forms of
pollution, not just CO2.

I am not in favor of a society where corporations have absolute
complete free reign. That just moves tyranny from the public to the
private sphere, and I am not in favor of tyranny in any form. That
being said, there are too many laws and taxes holding companies back
today.

-Kelly