tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14080323.post3903273748334605784..comments2023-10-11T10:56:22.816-05:00Comments on Weeping Atlas Cedars: Freedom is not Zero-SumChris Hartmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07777927963615322589noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14080323.post-43136018293803912892010-02-13T15:57:17.167-06:002010-02-13T15:57:17.167-06:00Miller FTW!Miller FTW!C - Loghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07061984603918623697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14080323.post-28681717852576946542010-02-13T09:18:40.159-06:002010-02-13T09:18:40.159-06:00It's a long and winding road.It's a long and winding road.Jake Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09661158372662154515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14080323.post-12348121803555098062010-02-12T23:42:44.860-06:002010-02-12T23:42:44.860-06:00Right. I've been thinking about this a bit sin...Right. I've been thinking about this a bit since I posted it. In some realms, I suppose, freedom <i>is</i> zero-sum. Property rights, for instance, especially as they pertain to finite resources such as land, air, and water. In those cases, more freedom for the polluter or the real estate speculator means less freedom for me the breather of air, the drinker of water, the needer of a place to live.<br /><br />As far as I know, the libertarians deal with the pollution externality problem by assigning it to some sort of private litigation process to "internalize the externalities." But I've never really gotten exactly how that is supposed to work.<br /><br />And as for the homeless and underhoused, I think in that case that they basically respond with something along the lines of "Both the rich and the poor are free to sleep beneath the bridges of Paris" before mentioning something about being paid according to the marginal value of one's productivity.<br /><br />Perhaps the argument is that as bad as the libertarian outcomes are, they are better than the "road to serfdom" that socialistic policies put us on. Though unless you want to argue that the Swedes are serfs, I think that this argument becomes harder and harder to make with each passing year.C - Loghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07061984603918623697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14080323.post-51165511088773644722010-02-12T23:20:06.093-06:002010-02-12T23:20:06.093-06:00Good post. If the libertarians would see freedom ...Good post. If the libertarians would see freedom as something expressed by more than just private property then I'd like them more.G of the Foresthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01519594405584255878noreply@blogger.com