Incredible to have McCloskey writing here and about SA! An account of mercantilism and rent-seeking, as opposed to the efficient allocation of capital and freedom of labour, is often missing from the broader (McCloskian) rhetoric on justice, on both sides of the issue.
For me, Georgism comes closest to bridging the gap—uniting the dispossessed with the efficient allocator of capital against the rent-seeker. Not all rents can be redistributed, such as beauty. But land rents seem truly pernicious and are the only asset that can be taxed without a deadweight loss. Rent seeking and land were central to early Liberalism, but Henry George seems to have enunciated the first incentive compatible solution.
Interesting article on personal liberty entwined with liberalism as a concept. If one looks at 'equality of permission' leading to equality of outcome it would greatly benefit the author to look deeper into the political aspects she touched upon. Both China and Russia have greatly benefitted their people ito of quality of life over the last decades.. Using the very unequal and non permissive western propganda trope of tyrant labelling for other cultures doing things the way they like doing things, doesn't fly. Keep in mind that the 'liberal' west has still not released Julian Assange, have bombed the Middle East since 1989, causing a massive refugee crisis,drone assasinated people that didn't agree with them, used tyrannical monetary measures to subjugate the 3rd world through the IMF - the list of true tyranny from the west is endless.
On personal liberty: we all desire freedom/liberty but realistically we have very little choice in most things for example name, parents, sex, race, class, schooling, country, nationality...the list goes on and on. As much as people like to think they have rights and choice, it is more sobering to think that the little choice you do have is a privilege and that nothing is a right.
In a world with 8billion people, all in competition for ever dwindling commodities, with a malevolent super rich global top structure fighting amongst themselves, with normal everyday people merely seen as collateral damage, liberty is but a concept lying at the bottom of a very deep lake.
Incredible to have McCloskey writing here and about SA! An account of mercantilism and rent-seeking, as opposed to the efficient allocation of capital and freedom of labour, is often missing from the broader (McCloskian) rhetoric on justice, on both sides of the issue.
For me, Georgism comes closest to bridging the gap—uniting the dispossessed with the efficient allocator of capital against the rent-seeker. Not all rents can be redistributed, such as beauty. But land rents seem truly pernicious and are the only asset that can be taxed without a deadweight loss. Rent seeking and land were central to early Liberalism, but Henry George seems to have enunciated the first incentive compatible solution.
Interesting article on personal liberty entwined with liberalism as a concept. If one looks at 'equality of permission' leading to equality of outcome it would greatly benefit the author to look deeper into the political aspects she touched upon. Both China and Russia have greatly benefitted their people ito of quality of life over the last decades.. Using the very unequal and non permissive western propganda trope of tyrant labelling for other cultures doing things the way they like doing things, doesn't fly. Keep in mind that the 'liberal' west has still not released Julian Assange, have bombed the Middle East since 1989, causing a massive refugee crisis,drone assasinated people that didn't agree with them, used tyrannical monetary measures to subjugate the 3rd world through the IMF - the list of true tyranny from the west is endless.
On personal liberty: we all desire freedom/liberty but realistically we have very little choice in most things for example name, parents, sex, race, class, schooling, country, nationality...the list goes on and on. As much as people like to think they have rights and choice, it is more sobering to think that the little choice you do have is a privilege and that nothing is a right.
In a world with 8billion people, all in competition for ever dwindling commodities, with a malevolent super rich global top structure fighting amongst themselves, with normal everyday people merely seen as collateral damage, liberty is but a concept lying at the bottom of a very deep lake.
Great article