Liberal bromides do not offer a solution to our creeping tyranny, but liberal norms and values do help check it.
Michael C. Munger
It is tempting to think “it can’t happen here.” But Americans are more concerned about tyranny than they have been in many years.
David Beasley's claim, “It’s not complicated" to solve global poverty is actually complicated.
The categorical claim, made now by many alarmists, that “this time is different; jobs are gone forever” is no more plausible now than in the past.
If creative destruction is as productive as proponents claim, economic “winners” should be able to compensate the “losers” and still come out ahead.
Bonvillain and Singer mischaracterize the symptoms of a problem, misdiagnose the underlying “disease,” and then botch the prescription for a cure.
My suggestion was that “directional” libertarians and classical liberals ally rather than question one another’s authenticity.
Any policy change that lessens government control over private action is desirable; libertarians are crucial to any intellectual push in that direction.
Michael C. Munger is Chair of the Political Science Department at Duke University. His research focuses on the ethical and practical effects of exchange and cooperation. Munger's most recent book is The Sharing Economy, published by the Institute for Economic Affairs.