For vols. 1-3 (2009-2011), cite articles as: Author, “Title,” Libertarian Papers [volume #], [article number] (year). Example: Jan Narveson, “Present Payments, Past Wrongs: Correcting Loose Talk about Nozick and Rectification,” Libertarian Papers 1, 1 (2009).
For vol. 4 (2012) onward, cite articles as: Author. Year. "Title." Libertarian Papers. Volume # (issue #): [page numbers]. Example: Michael F. Reber. 2012. "The Role of Work: A Eudaimonistic Perspective." Libertarian Papers. 4 (1): 1-26.
18. “Grounding Political Debate”
Abstract: This essay is intentionally one-sided. Almost all other essays by either defenders of capitalism (libertarians) or defenders of government (statists) are oppositely one-sided. They claim that capitalism’s voluntariness or government’s coerciveness mean that capitalism or government better fosters such things as art, happiness, education, jobs and world peace, and never much emphasise factors that may undermine their commentary. This essay emphasises the mitigating factors that others gloss over.
Arguments about the advantages or disadvantages of capitalism or government dominate political debate. This essay contends that these arguments, when they are not just about their author’s feelings, are usually incorrect or misleading. They often use value-judgments on behalf of others, disguised by false measures of happiness invented from economic data or surveys, and then applied across demographics and time. Another common error is to talk only of the positive side of something and ignore the negative. Libertarians spot these errors in statists, yet often do not hold themselves to the same standard.
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[...] Fan, Act III. [↩]Notes on Democracy, p. 31. [↩]For more on this, see Benjamin Marks, “Grounding Political Debate,” Libertarian Papers 1, 18 (2009). [↩] This entry was posted in Mencken's Conservatism. [...]
[...] in my essay, “Grounding Political Debate,”9 I address some common errors by libertarians that mislead them into believing: that [...]
[...] Ross Gittins Interview Other entries featuring Benjamin Marks» Benjamin Marks, author of a critique of happiness studies and a review of Gittinomics, and Economics.org.au editor: Thank you, Mr Gittins, for making your [...]
[...] an idealist, a romantic or a utopian. He is the author of Mencken’s Conservatism and “Grounding Political Debate.” The lack of any attention that those two brilliant pieces has received confirms his point [...]