Bretigne, Thanks for the beautiful essay and the powerful testimony about rural China and sweatshops, This is one of my favorite essays because it points to sameness rather than differences: https://fee.org/articles/protectionists-should-tread-lightly-on-the-dreams-of-the-chinese-poor/ Yet, whenever I point in this direction the China bashers come out and include those who should know better. I find it hard to be as optimistic about the next 20-40 years. Will humanity wake up in time?
Excellent work on this and your LewRockwell piece! My eyes have been opened even wider than they already were. Like Toby and many others, I've long believed the regulatory system was created to protect the people/planet from industry misdeeds, and was since captured by industry. So, learning that it was initially designed to benefit industry was quite an epiphany.
In the LewRockwell piece, you state, "The institution of the state is the biggest monopolist around." This reminded me of a paper published in the Wisconsin Law Review titled "The Myth of the Rule of Law" by John Hasnas, about how the state has a monopoly on the rule of law. If you aren't already familiar with it, I think it would be of interest to you. https://medusa.teodesian.net/docs/liberty/MythFinalDraft.pdf
TBH I think this is asking the wrong question. The problem with liberalism isn't so much the market or the state per sae it's that abandoning a society grounded in the absolute morality and metaphysics of Christianity or at least some other religion opens the door to decadence and nihilism. Once decadence and nihilism permeates a society it's everyone for themselves in the worst possible way that people simply stop caring. An example would be someone being part of an evil corporate/state bureaucracy that causes tremendous suffering having no voice of conscience check on their actions. Seeing as you are in the Mises camp I would say Hoppe covers this pretty well in "Democracy that God that Failed."
“We ended up with Stakeholder Fascism because "we" (someone, not me) were foolish enough to believe that an entity that is founded in coercive power can ever be an an effective instrument for the protection of ordinary people against the more powerful.” Beautifully stated, Bretigne.
Please Don't Lay the Crimes of the Coercive State at the Feet of Liberalism
Bretigne, Thanks for the beautiful essay and the powerful testimony about rural China and sweatshops, This is one of my favorite essays because it points to sameness rather than differences: https://fee.org/articles/protectionists-should-tread-lightly-on-the-dreams-of-the-chinese-poor/ Yet, whenever I point in this direction the China bashers come out and include those who should know better. I find it hard to be as optimistic about the next 20-40 years. Will humanity wake up in time?
Excellent work on this and your LewRockwell piece! My eyes have been opened even wider than they already were. Like Toby and many others, I've long believed the regulatory system was created to protect the people/planet from industry misdeeds, and was since captured by industry. So, learning that it was initially designed to benefit industry was quite an epiphany.
In the LewRockwell piece, you state, "The institution of the state is the biggest monopolist around." This reminded me of a paper published in the Wisconsin Law Review titled "The Myth of the Rule of Law" by John Hasnas, about how the state has a monopoly on the rule of law. If you aren't already familiar with it, I think it would be of interest to you. https://medusa.teodesian.net/docs/liberty/MythFinalDraft.pdf
TBH I think this is asking the wrong question. The problem with liberalism isn't so much the market or the state per sae it's that abandoning a society grounded in the absolute morality and metaphysics of Christianity or at least some other religion opens the door to decadence and nihilism. Once decadence and nihilism permeates a society it's everyone for themselves in the worst possible way that people simply stop caring. An example would be someone being part of an evil corporate/state bureaucracy that causes tremendous suffering having no voice of conscience check on their actions. Seeing as you are in the Mises camp I would say Hoppe covers this pretty well in "Democracy that God that Failed."
“We ended up with Stakeholder Fascism because "we" (someone, not me) were foolish enough to believe that an entity that is founded in coercive power can ever be an an effective instrument for the protection of ordinary people against the more powerful.” Beautifully stated, Bretigne.
Your thoughts encapsulate the thoughts that were running through my mind as I read that piece.