Tom Palmer – “Anarchism, Limited Government & Liberalism: A Modest Case for Sacking the State” from oxford libertarian on Vimeo.
It was a rather informal chat that covered a number of topics in history, sociology, political science, economics, and moral theory. I haven’t had a chance to watch through it, but I had nightmares afterwards that I had misspoken on an important matter, that is, on the absolute incomes of the lowest decile of income in the least economically free and the lowest deciles in the most most economically free. I said, I think, that the latter was something like $17,000, when it should have been more like $7,000 for the most free. That’s a big difference! (Still the lower number is a huge multiple of the incomes of the lowest decile in the least free, which was my point, but misspeaking like that is an embarrassment; I have asked the organizers to check it and post the correction. I will try to check it myself, now that I have some fast internet access.) The stats for the latest report (http://www.freetheworld.com/2009/reports/world/EFW2009_ch1.pdf ) show the percentage of total national income ranges from 2.4 to 2.6 (that is, not much difference) between the least and the most economically free, whereas the average incomes for the lowest decile in the least free countries is $896 and for the most free it’s $9,105.
Intuitively, rights aren’t something a person can ‘have’ in the sense that one has a head or one has a beating heart. Could you point to some arguments made for having rights outside of a system of governance?
Thanks for the good question. Rather than try to write a long essay in a little comment box, I will refer you to my book, Realizing Freedom (http://www.amazon.com/Realizing-Freedom-Libertarian-History-Practice/dp/1935308114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257002697&sr=8-1 ), or the articles on “Saving Libertarianism from Its Friends” and the “Debate on Libertarianism” that are posted under “Selected Publications” on this website (http://tomgpalmer.com/selected-publications/ ).
One simple note: one also doesn’t “have” a mind or a conscience or emotions or friendships in the sense that one has a head or one has a beating heart, either, but that would be a weak argument against one having them. You are quite right, however, to ask in what sense one does have those things. (I discuss a bit such matters of ontology in my essay on “Myths of Individualism,” as well.)
I hope that that helps. Thanks for the interesting topic!
Cheers,
Tom