article which may be of interest to all the libertarians....

[Benko]

http://forum.dansimmons.com/ubbthreads/ ... Post153584

On another forum full post of article of interest (and discussion).


My Rand Paul Problem by Richard A. Epstein (Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow and member of hoover ip squared working group steering committee)

Why classical liberalism is superior to hard-core libertarianism...

[Libertarian666]

That looks like a tired rehash of the usual arguments by statists in libertarian clothing against actual libertarianism.

And this is just moronic:

"The classical liberal avoids such over-the-top rhetoric. Instead, he seeks to maximize the net social gain from the tax system, so that each taxpayer receives a bundle of government services whose value exceeds the cost of the tax."

Clearly this is impossible for several reasons, which I will leave as an exercise for the reader.

[WildAboutHarry]

[quote='Libertarian666']"The classical liberal avoids such over-the-top rhetoric. Instead, he seeks to maximize the net social gain from the tax system, so that each taxpayer receives a bundle of government services whose value exceeds the cost of the tax."

Clearly this is impossible for several reasons, which I will leave as an exercise for the reader.[/quote]

I think what he means is "...services whose value exceeds the cost of the tax [for the favored group/class/51% of the voters, etc.]".

[Kshartle]

"The classical liberal avoids such over-the-top rhetoric. Instead, he seeks to maximize the net social gain from the tax system, so that each taxpayer receives a bundle of government services whose value exceeds the cost of the tax."

Clearly this is impossible for several reasons, which I will leave as an exercise for the reader.

I think what he means is "...services whose value exceeds the cost of the tax [for the favored group/class/51% of the voters, etc.]".

I think in reality it turns out to be "...services whose value [for the favored group/class/51% of the voters, etc.] is believed to (but never really) exceed the cost of the tax (to the 49% outvoted group)".

[Kshartle]

That looks like a tired rehash of the usual arguments by statists in libertarian clothing against actual libertarianism.

I read it and I just couldn't muster the strength to point out how piss-poor the brain of the author is. Unless he just has an ax to grind. In that case he's not an idiot, he just has no scruples.