Free Thoughts

What drives us to be concerned about others? In The Wealth of Nations , Adam Smith says people are basically self-interested, and this is what drives market economies. Does this mean he’s saying people are selfish? Smith has a pretty simple formula for happiness. “Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.” What does he mean by that? Can the study of economics really be about f...

What’s the proper scope of criminal law, from a libertarian point of view? Why does America lead the world in incarceration rates? How is the federal War on Drugs affecting our legal system? Burrus and Lynch explain how policies like mandatory minimum sentencing and three strike laws erode civil liberties and talk about the proliferation of strict liability standards in criminal law. They also dis...

David Kopel joins us this week for a discussion on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: the right to keep and bear firearms. Aaron and Trevor introduce the debate over gun rights in America today by asking questions: Why allow people to own guns at all? Aren’t we past that point as a civilization? Does having more guns around actually reduce crime? How many crimes each year are stopped b...

If the government’s been spying on us for decades, what’s new now? Why is bulk data collection so particularly nefarious? What is metadata anyway, and what does the government do with it? Does the government actually catch terrorists through mass surveillance? Why do people treat terrorism differently from other violent crimes? The defenders of surveillance say that “if you haven’t done anything w...

Professor Michael Huemer claims that if normal people acted like governments do, we would generally be horrified and find their behavior morally contemptible…so why do most people intuitively feel that government is justified in its actions? Professor Huemer, Aaron, and Trevor tackle problems of political obligation, political legitimacy, and political authority, and explain the differences betwee...

Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus tackle listener questions in this episode, including a few perennial classics: If libertarianism is so great, where are all the libertarian countries? Why can’t libertarians, conservatives, and liberals all come together to “make it work” in Washington? How can access to education be guaranteed if the American education system is privatized? And what happens to peopl...

George Selgin joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on money and banking in the United States. What is money? How did the government become so deeply ingrained in the production and supply of our money, and why? What is the Federal Reserve, and what does it actually do? What would the U. S. look like with a competitive currency system? And what about Bitcoin? Show Notes and Further Reading Georg...

Why did the court seem to rule on the side of free markets and limited government this time around? Is this the most libertarian Court to date? Show Notes and Further Reading Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (Obamacare) NLRB v. Noel Canning (recess appointments) Harris v. Quinn (unionizing home health care workers) Riley v. California (cell phone searches) McCutcheon v. FEC (campaign finance) Hosted on Acas...

Greg Lukianoff joins us for a discussion about the state of free speech on college campuses in the United States. We talk about campus speech codes, the constitutionality of “free speech zones,” chilling effects of trigger warnings, and more. What are the larger effects that these campus restrictions have on our society? Show Notes and Further Reading Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Cen...

What does this “Fifth Wave” mean for democracy? Is this a change libertarians should feel good about? Will it lead to more freedom? Show Notes and Further Reading Martin Gurri, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium  (book) A selection from the book is available here: “How a Tsunami of Information Inspired the Revolt of the Public” James C. Scott, Seeing Like a...

Clark Neily joins us this week for a discussion on judicial engagement. Neily contrasts judges’ findings in cases with stringent standards of review—which he characterizes as a genuine quest for the truth from a truly neutral adjudicator, decided on the basis of evidence—with what he calls judicial abdication: the tendency of judges to default to a rational basis review of speculative justificatio...

Neal McCluskey joins us this week for a discussion about public education in America. He shares its history, from the “Old Deluder Satan Law” of 1647 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the current debate over policies like No Child Left Behind and the Common Core. He also talks about public schooling’s inherent pitfalls and shares different proposals for infusing school choice into the current sys...

Doug Bandow joins Aaron and Trevor to talk about the political philosophy of libertarianism and and the religion of Christianity. What, if any, is the relationship between the two? Are there things within the Christian tradition—within Christian scripture—that support libertarianism? Show Notes and Further Reading Doug Bandow,  Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics  (book) Charles Mu...

Megan McArdle joins us to talk about her new book  The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success  (2014). We don’t tend to think of failure as a good thing. But McArdle says that recognizing failure—and in some cases embracing it—is a crucial part of what makes American culture, markets, and society successful. But she also says we’re getting worse at dealing with failure. Is the wor...

Walter Olson joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on the evolution of discrimination law in the American legal system. They talk about common carrier obligations, preferential treatment and employee discrimination suits, the disparate impact of anti-discrimination laws—especially in hiring decisions—and the role of law schools and academia in perpetuating this cycle. What happens when laws crea...

Mark A. Calabria joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on banking regulations in the United States. Calabria gives a short history of banking regulation and explains the incentives built into the regulatory system that governs banking and investments here in America. Why are people so angry at “Wall Street” all the time? What exactly is Wall Street, anyway? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

This week Jason Brennan joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss his newest book,  Why Not Capitalism? , which is a response to G. A. Cohen’s 2009 book  Why Not Socialism?  Brennan says that Cohen commits the fallacy of comparing idealized socialism with perfect actors to real markets with imperfect actors, and offers an illustrative example as proof that when comparing idealized capitalism to idealized...

Aaron and Trevor join Randy Barnett to discuss his book The Structure of Liberty , which was recently re-released in an updated edition. Barnett describes five rights—informed by natural law—that are crucial for properly structuring a society. He also shows how libertarian theories successfully counter the structural societal problems of knowledge, interests, and power. Show Notes and Further Read...

Aaron and Trevor talk with Peter Van Doren about regulatory failure in markets, specifically phone service, banking, electricity, internet, and health care. Van Doren shows how regulation in these markets works as a hidden tax by cross-subsidizing competing services and distorting real prices. Who loses when regulations have unexpected consequences: the companies or the consumers the regulations a...

Besides the horrendous affront to human rights that was American slavery, black people in America have been and continue to be singled out for “special treatment” by the government in other ways, too: the federal drug war, minimum wage laws, the failure of public schooling, licensing restrictions on opening businesses, gun control laws, the indignity of welfare, and many more. So why aren’t there...

Tom W. Bell joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on intellectual property, specifically copyright law in the United States. Is there one libertarian stance on intellectual property? What’s wrong with copyright law in America today? Should we even have copyright at all? And if we should, how can we make it better than it is now? Show Notes and Further Reading Tom W. Bell,  Intellectual Privilege...

Why is Piketty’s book getting so much attention in America? What does Piketty get right and wrong in his book? Piketty seems to be predicting the inevitable collapse of capitalism…but is inequality really getting worse? Show Notes and Further Reading Scott Winship, “Whither the Bottom 90 Percent, Thomas Piketty?” (article) Lawrence H. Summers, “The Inequality Puzzle” (article) Thomas Piketty, Capi...

What does Article 2 of the Constitution say about the powers of the Executive Branch? How did we get to where we are now, with the executive wielding so much discretionary power? And is there anything we can do about it? Gene Healy, vice president of the Cato Institute and author of  The Cult of the Presidency  and False Idol joins us to answer these questions and more about America’s most popular...

In this episode Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus talk about egalitarianism with Professor Elizabeth Anderson. Should we be concerned about an equal distribution of resources in a society? An equal distribution of outcomes? Is it a bad thing for some people to be worse off than others through no fault of their own? And whose job is it to enforce such distributions—government or markets? Anderson is t...

Is economic growth incompatible with a clean planet? Jerry Taylor is considered to be one of the most widely cited and influential critics of green energy and federal environmental policy. Is economic growth incompatible with a clean planet? Doesn’t the government already do a good job of regulating pollution? How would markets do better? Show Notes and Further Reading Ronald Coase, The Problem of...