Sunday, March 24, 2013

Unlearning Economics — Yes, Libertarians Really Are Lazy Marxists

I have only really just started studying Marxism in depth (though I am stopping short of Capital for now). Subsequently, while reading Bertell Ollman‘s Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in a Capitalist Society, it once again struck me that (right-)libertarianism is really just lazy Marxism. In many ways libertarianism reads like the first third of Marxism: the area which explores methodological questions and the nature of man. Both libertarianism and Marxism are generally fairly agreeable – and in agreement 0 in this area, but the former never really fleshes out its arguments satisfactorily. Often I find, after describing some basic principles (non coercion etc.), libertarians make jump to property rights and capitalism being the bestest thing ever, without fully explaining it.*
I will focus primarily on Robert Nozick and Ludwig von Mises here, as they are the only two libertarians who really explored libertarianism from basic principles of man and his relationship to both nature and economic activity (Murray Rothbard was really an interpretation of Mises in this respect). Overall, I think Nozick and Mises combine to form a fair reflection of minarchist libertarianism.
Unlearning Economics
Yes, Libertarians Really Are Lazy Marxists

4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Right this is sort of what I'm seeing ie Marx "created Capitalism" and Marx's "Capitalists" are just Libertarians of another stripe.

So like when CNBCs Kudlow says "free market capitalism is the best blah blah blah..." Kudlow is advocating a form of "Marxist" arrangements if we term "Marxist" any sort of modern economic arrangements he was able to observe and illustrate for us....

The problems we suffer under presently is all the result of mostly an intra- Libertarian civil war in my view...

iow When Bill Mitchell or Randall Wray would say: "If you want to increase employment, then simply employ people.." this is NOT a libertarian statement in my view. It comes across as very righteous authoritarian to me... such a recommendation is rejected out of hand by libertarians of all stripes (both left and right) who now dominate politically.

Deficit Doves: LIBERTARIANS at core.

Deficit Hawks: LIBERTARIANS at core.

Both sides REJECT absolute govt fiscal authority .... they have a BIG problem with it that goes WAAAAY beyond potential "price instability" or "inflation"... "inflation" is a canard they use... I dont buy it...

rsp,

zal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

lol wtf?

Matt Franko said...

Y,

Spam looks like it is getting more elaborate :-)

Rsp