POLITICS & PROSPERITY

The road to Utopia is the road to Hell.

Menu

Skip to content

Politics and Prosperity: A Natural Experiment

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Loquitur Veritatem

See Part IV of this post.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • Google
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

This entry was posted in Economics: Principles and Issues, Politics - Politicians - Government in Action and tagged economic growth, politics, Red vs. Blue. Bookmark the permalink.

Post navigation

← Screen Shots: “The Glass Castle”, “Victoria”, and “The Crown”
Religion, Creation, and Morality →

Loquitur Veritatem

My pen name, Loquitur Veritatem, means truth-teller.

Realities

Realities presents the best of Politics & Prosperity in the form of polished and updated articles. New material is added often. Give it a look.

Enter your email address to follow this site and receive notifications of new articles by email.

Search this site

Trump vs. Obama: Approval Ratings as of 04/20/18

Feature pages

  • Abortion Q and A
  • About
    • My Moral Profile
  • Balderdash Chronicles
  • Constitution for the 21st Century
  • Economics: A Survey
  • Einstein’s Errors
  • Favorite Posts
  • Freespace and Me
  • Leftism
    • Leftism: A Bibliography
  • Monarchs of England
  • Presidents: Key Dates and Various Trivia
  • Social Norms and Liberty
  • U.S. Supreme Court: Lines of Succession and Ideological Alignment
  • Union of Conservative Bloggers
  • Writing: A Guide

Recent articles

  • “Holidays” I Can Do Without April 22, 2018
  • The Balderdash Chronicles April 13, 2018
  • Whence Polarization? April 9, 2018
  • Fine-Tuning the Electorate April 8, 2018
  • Abortion Q and A April 7, 2018
  • Preemptive (Cold) Civil War, Without Delay April 5, 2018
  • Abortion, the “Me” Generation, and the Left April 3, 2018
  • Even More about Names March 30, 2018
  • It’s a MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD World March 29, 2018
  • Stop, Frisk, and Save Lives II March 26, 2018
  • Reductio ad Sclopetum, or Getting to the Bottom of “Gun Control” March 24, 2018
  • Bellicosity or Bargaining Strategy? March 24, 2018
  • The Framers, Mob Rule, and a Fatal Error March 22, 2018
  • Preemptive War Revisited March 20, 2018
  • My View of Mill, Endorsed March 19, 2018
  • This Is a Test… March 19, 2018
  • Realities March 19, 2018
  • Preemptive (Cold) Civil War March 18, 2018
  • A Rearview Look at the Invasion of Iraq and the War on Terror March 15, 2018
  • “Democracy” Thrives in Darkness — And Liberty Withers March 14, 2018

Most Read

  • "Holidays" I Can Do Without
  • Utilitarianism vs. Liberty
  • Intelligence, Personality, Politics, and Happiness
  • Favorite Posts
  • Disposition and Ideology
  • Negative Rights
  • The Fed and Business Cycles
  • What Is Libertarianism?
  • Race and Reason: The Achievement Gap -- Causes and Implications
  • The Constitution: Original Meaning, Corruption, and Restoration

Archives

Blogroll

  • Adams, Scott
  • Allergic to Bull
  • American Interest, The
  • American Renaissance
  • American Spectator, The
  • American Thinker
  • Americana, Etc.
  • Arts & Letters Daily
  • askblog (Arnold Kling)
  • Bench Memos (National Review)
  • bluebird of bitterness
  • Carpe Diem (Mark J. Perry)
  • City Journal
  • Climate Etc.
  • College Fix, The
  • Commentary
  • Conversible Economist
  • Corner, The (National Review)
  • Daily Signal, The (Heritage Foundation)
  • Dalrymple, Theodore (at Taki'sl Magazine)
  • Dissecting Leftism (John J. Ray)
  • Dyspepsia Generation
  • EconLog
  • Federalist, The
  • Frontpage Magazine
  • Greenie Watch (John J. Ray)
  • Grumpy Economist, The (John Cochrane)
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Hot Air
  • House of Eratosthenes
  • Ideas (David Friedman)
  • Imlac's Journal
  • Le*gal In*sur*rec*tion
  • Liberty Corner
  • Liberty Corner, The Original
  • Maverick Philosopher (Bill Vallicella)
  • Mike's Weather Page
  • New Reform Club, The
  • Online Library of Law and Liberty
  • Open Market (Competitive Enterprise Institute)
  • Originalism Blog, The
  • Political Calculations
  • Political Correctness Watch (John J. Ray)
  • Public Discourse
  • Quillette
  • Realities
  • Right Coast, The
  • SCOTUSblog
  • Spencer, Roy (Ph.D.)
  • Thompson, James (at The Unz Review)
  • Volokh Conspiracy, The
  • waka waka waka
  • Watts Up With That?
  • West Hunter

Categories

  • Academic Freedom – Civil Liberties – Privacy (162)
  • Affirmative Action – Immigration – Race (135)
  • Baseball and Lesser Sports (120)
  • Blogs – Bloggers – Blogging (79)
  • Climate Change and Environmentalism (65)
  • Constitution – Courts – Law – Justice (574)
  • Culture – Language – The Arts (326)
  • Economics: Principles and Issues (658)
  • election 2016 (6)
  • Electoral Politics (156)
  • Enemies: Foreign and Domestic (152)
  • Entertainment (5)
  • Health and Health Care (22)
  • History (97)
  • Humor – Satire – Wry Commentary (100)
  • Intelligence – Personality – Psychology (164)
  • Leftism – Statism – Democracy (534)
  • Liberty – Libertarianism – Rights (394)
  • logic (5)
  • Management (29)
  • Media Matters & Reportage (115)
  • Nature (4)
  • Nostalgia – Trivia – Popular Culture (94)
  • Philosophy – Religion – Science – Pseudoscience (178)
  • Political Economy & Civil Society (372)
  • Political Movements & Theories (161)
  • politics (27)
  • Politics – Politicians – Government in Action (445)
  • Public Education and Homeschooling (23)
  • Science and Understanding (196)
  • Self Ownership: Abortion – Euthanasia – Gender – Etc. (98)
  • Social commentary (30)
  • Technology (3)
  • Thinkers: Famous and Infamous (173)
  • Trivia (10)
  • Uncategorized (15)
  • War – Peace – Foreign Affairs (404)

Most-Used Tags

abortion AGW altruism atheism Austin baseball civil society climate change conservatism Constitution creation crime defense democracy Donald Trump economic growth economics economic stagnation election 2014 election 2016 existence fascism freedom of speech GDP GDP growth global warming God Golden Rule government spending Great Recession Hillary Clinton immigration income inequality intelligence Keynesianism leftism leftists liberalism libertarianism liberty morality natural rights negative rights Obama Obamacare paternalism political correctness politics preemptive war probability progressivism pseudo-libertarianism psychology race race and intelligence racism Rahn Curve real unemployment rate redistribution regulation religion same-sex marriage science secession social justice social norms Social Security social welfare society statism terrorism Trump unemployment utilitarianism welfare state

Comments & Correspondence

Comments close 30 days after the publication of a post. If a post is no longer open for comment, or if you prefer to communicate privately, you may e-mail me at the Germanic nickname for Friedrich followed by the last name of the great Austrian economist and Nobel laureate whose first name is Friedrich followed by the 3rd and 4th digits of his birth year followed by the usual typographic symbol followed by the domain and extension for Google’s e-mail service — all run together.

If you submit a comment or suggestion by e-mail, I may acknowledge it or use it on this blog. But I may paraphrase what you say or edit it for the sake of concision, clarity, coherence, or brevity. I will not use your name unless you specifically authorize me to do so. Even then, I will put quotation marks around your name unless I am certain of your identity.

On Liberty and Libertarianism

What is liberty? It is peaceful, willing coexistence and its concomitant: beneficially cooperative behavior.

John Stuart Mill opined that "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." But who determines whether an act is harmful or harmless? Acts deemed harmless by an individual are not harmless if they subvert the societal bonds of trust and self-restraint upon which liberty itself depends.

Which is not to say that all social regimes are regimes of liberty. Liberty requires voice -- the freedom to dissent -- and exit -- the freedom to choose one's neighbors and associates. Voice and exit depend, in turn, on the rule of law under a minimal state.

Liberty, because it is a social phenomenon and not an innate condition of humanity, must be won and preserved by an unflinching defense of a polity that fosters liberty through its norms, and the swift and certain administration of justice within that polity. The governments in and of the United States have long since ceased to foster liberty, but most Americans are captives in their own land and have no choice but to strive for the restoration of liberty, or something closer to it.

Who can restore liberty? Certainly not the self-proclaimed libertarians who are fixated on Mill's empty harm principle and align with the left on social norms. Traditional (i.e., Burkean) conservatism fosters the preservation and adherence of beneficial norms (e.g., the last six of the Ten Commandments). Thus, by necessity, the only true libertarianism is found in traditional conservatism. I am a traditional conservative, which makes me a libertarian -- a true one.

Notes about Usage

“State” (with a capital “S”) refers to one of the United States, and “States” refers to two or more of them. “State” and “States,” thus used, are proper nouns because they refer to a unique entity or entities: one or more of the United States, the union of which, under the terms and conditions stated in the Constitution, is the raison d’être for the nation. I reserve the uncapitalized word “state” for a government, or hierarchy of them, which exerts a monopoly of force within its boundaries.

Marriage, in the Western tradition, predates the state and legitimates the union of one man and one woman. As such, it is an institution that is vital to civil society and therefore to the enjoyment of liberty. The recognition of a more-or-less permanent homosexual pairing as a kind of marriage is both ill-advised and illegitimate. Such an arrangement is therefore a “marriage” (in quotation marks) or, more accurately, a homosexual cohabitation contract (HCC).

The words “liberal”, “progressive”, and their variants are usually enclosed in quotation marks (sneer quotes) because they refer to persons and movements whose statist policies are, in fact, destructive of liberty and progress. I sometimes italicize the words, just to reduce visual clutter.

I have reverted to the British style of punctuating in-line quotations, which I followed 40 years ago when I published a weekly newspaper. The British style is to enclose within quotation marks only (a) the punctuation that appears in quoted text or (b) the title of a work (e.g., a blog post) that is usually placed within quotation marks.

I have reverted because of the confusion and unsightliness caused by the American style. It calls for the placement of periods and commas within quotation marks, even if the periods and commas don’t occur in the quoted material or title. Also, if there is a question mark at the end of quoted material, it replaces the comma or period that might otherwise be placed there.

If I had continued to follow American style, I would have ended a sentence in a recent post with this:

… “A New (Cold) Civil War or Secession?” “The Culture War,” “Polarization and De-facto Partition,” and “Civil War?“

What a hodge-podge. There’s no comma between the first two entries, and the sentence ends with an inappropriate question mark. With two titles ending in question marks, there was no way for me to avoid a series in which a comma is lacking. I could have avoided the sentence-ending question mark by recasting the list, but the items are listed chronologically, which is how they should be read.

I solved these problems easily by reverting to the British style:

… “A New (Cold) Civil War or Secession?”, “The Culture War“, “Polarization and De-facto Partition“, and “Civil War?“.

This not only eliminates the hodge-podge, but is also more logical and accurate. All items are separated by commas, commas aren’t displaced by question marks, and the declarative sentence ends with a period instead of a question mark.

For much more see “Writing: A Guide“.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: