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 Read...
Nov 17, 2014•57 min
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 Reading Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky, How Much is Enough? (book) Daniel C. Russell, The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics (book) Daniel C. Russell, Hap...
Nov 10, 2014•47 min
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 Reading Hal 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...
Nov 03, 2014•54 min
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 Reading Justin Logan, “War’s Declining Significance As A Policy Tool in the Comtemporary Age” (Chapter 8 in Peace, Love, & Libe...
Oct 27, 2014•53 min
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 Reading Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (book) Bill Glod, The Limits ...
Oct 20, 2014•48 min
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 ...
Oct 13, 2014•52 min
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 lik...
Oct 06, 2014•53 min
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 ...
Sep 29, 2014•57 min
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? Hosted on Acast. Se...
Sep 22, 2014•1 hr 4 min
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 Reading Michael Huemer, The Problem of Political Autho...
Sep 15, 2014•53 min
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...
Sep 08, 2014•51 min
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 Reading George Selgin, Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage...
Sep 01, 2014•1 hr 3 min
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 Reading Burwell 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) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 25, 2014•52 min
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 Reading Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (book) Greg Lukianoff, Freedom From Speech (book coming Sept....
Aug 18, 2014•49 min
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 Reading Martin 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 Th...
Aug 11, 2014•44 min
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 defini...
Aug 04, 2014•52 min
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...
Jul 28, 2014•1 hr 7 min
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 Reading Doug 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) Ho...
Jul 21, 2014•52 min
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 Reading Megan McArdle, The Up Side of D...
Jul 14, 2014•59 min
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”? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Jul 07, 2014•1 hr 3 min
Mark A. Calabria joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on banking regulations in the United States. Calabria gives a short history of banking regulation and explains the incentives built into the regulatory system that governs banking and investments here in America. Why are people so angry at “Wall Street” all the time? What exactly is Wall Street, anyway? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 30, 2014•58 min
This week Jason Brennan joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss his newest book, Why Not Capitalism? , which is a response to G. A. Cohen’s 2009 book Why Not Socialism? Brennan says that Cohen commits the fallacy of comparing idealized socialism with perfect actors to real markets with imperfect actors, and offers an illustrative example as proof that when comparing idealized capitalism to idealized socialism and real capitalism to real socialism, it is capitalism—not socialism—that claims the moral h...
Jun 23, 2014•46 min
Aaron and Trevor join Randy Barnett to discuss his book The Structure of Liberty , which was recently re-released in an updated edition. Barnett describes five rights—informed by natural law—that are crucial for properly structuring a society. He also shows how libertarian theories successfully counter the structural societal problems of knowledge, interests, and power. Show Notes and Further Reading Randy E. Barnett, The Structure of Liberty (book) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...
Jun 16, 2014•54 min
Aaron and Trevor talk with Peter Van Doren about regulatory failure in markets, specifically phone service, banking, electricity, internet, and health care. Van Doren shows how regulation in these markets works as a hidden tax by cross-subsidizing competing services and distorting real prices. Who loses when regulations have unexpected consequences: the companies or the consumers the regulations are meant to protect? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 09, 2014•59 min
Besides the horrendous affront to human rights that was American slavery, black people in America have been and continue to be singled out for “special treatment” by the government in other ways, too: the federal drug war, minimum wage laws, the failure of public schooling, licensing restrictions on opening businesses, gun control laws, the indignity of welfare, and many more. So why aren’t there more black libertarians? Show Notes and Further Reading Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop (book)...
Jun 02, 2014•42 min
Tom W. Bell joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on intellectual property, specifically copyright law in the United States. Is there one libertarian stance on intellectual property? What’s wrong with copyright law in America today? Should we even have copyright at all? And if we should, how can we make it better than it is now? Show Notes and Further Reading Tom W. Bell, Intellectual Privilege (book) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 26, 2014•50 min
Why is Piketty’s book getting so much attention in America? What does Piketty get right and wrong in his book? Piketty seems to be predicting the inevitable collapse of capitalism…but is inequality really getting worse? Show Notes and Further Reading Scott Winship, “Whither the Bottom 90 Percent, Thomas Piketty?” (article) Lawrence H. Summers, “The Inequality Puzzle” (article) Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (book) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 19, 2014•52 min
What does Article 2 of the Constitution say about the powers of the Executive Branch? How did we get to where we are now, with the executive wielding so much discretionary power? And is there anything we can do about it? Gene Healy, vice president of the Cato Institute and author of The Cult of the Presidency and False Idol joins us to answer these questions and more about America’s most popular branch of government. Show Notes and Further Reading F. H. Buckley, The Once and Future King (book) J...
May 12, 2014•59 min
In this episode Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus talk about egalitarianism with Professor Elizabeth Anderson. Should we be concerned about an equal distribution of resources in a society? An equal distribution of outcomes? Is it a bad thing for some people to be worse off than others through no fault of their own? And whose job is it to enforce such distributions—government or markets? Anderson is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and W...
May 05, 2014•1 hr 1 min
Is economic growth incompatible with a clean planet? Jerry Taylor is considered to be one of the most widely cited and influential critics of green energy and federal environmental policy. Is economic growth incompatible with a clean planet? Doesn’t the government already do a good job of regulating pollution? How would markets do better? Show Notes and Further Reading Ronald Coase, The Problem of Social Cost (article) Murray Rothbard, Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution (article) Hosted on ...
Apr 28, 2014•56 min
