Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Accept the Political: Weaponize Libertarianism

One of the reasons libertarianism has stagnated, besides the obvious of the Party engaging in Party politics and not sticking with principle, is that the liberty minded just generally think everything would be better if nobody went politicking.

Meanwhile, most people do politics, even many so-called non-political types. This is a never ending flipping problem, and it exists both in the public and private space. So, you can't just offer a shallow interpretation of the issue based on 'let's all just not engage in politics.' You can't, for instance talk about the minimum wage laws and say we all ought to leave things alone because wages track with productivity- no. They do track with productivity- up until the point somebody can install themselves into some sort rent-seeking department. Labor regulations beget public bureacracy jobs, AND private sector bureacracy jobs. And once your organization is filled up with these creatures, they'll arrogate more power to themselves.

So, to win, one must first admit the ground is usually shifting beneath our feet. We have to look at our principles, figure out what the hell the world would probably look like if they were implemented and then diffuse the political urge by using up the political urge.

Case study: Walmart.

Back in the day, progressives would protest Walmart. Libertarians would reply by extolling the wonders of economies of scale. But the truth of the matter is found right in the fact that you are supposed to make marginal revenue equal marginal cost in order to achieve this economy of scale. Some of these costs come from the government. Thus, with less government, you'd have businesses achieving economies of scale as smaller entities.

Now, what the left did, as it always does, is bind everyone closer to the political process. Walmart got bigger, and the protesters got more regulation.

But if we can see the reality clearly, we can take short term action, obviating future regulation, preferably reducing cost, and encouraging more competition in a space. In other words, it would have been saner to end Walmart. Break it up. And wherever possible, massively reduce costs, so that Mom and Pop stores can get by with as few transactions as possible.

Now, there is another entire level of big, which happens when a company's primary business changes from selling widgets to chasing dollars by going to D.C. and spending dollars to woo politicians. This is very lucrative, and Walmart may actually be that big now, in no small part thanks to those protesters making them notice they needed to pay attention to D.C.

What I am arguing here is that the political will happen, and we need to look at how to make it happen in a way that, when the dust clears, we are better off. So, since the equation suggests lower costs from the government would lead to achieving economies of scale at smaller business sizes, we should have explained that and held out a political plan of action- we kill the big meanie corporation (which, despite being a person in U.S. law, doesn't actually have a soul), and reduce costs so people can compete. And, of course, the big meanie corporation would become many smaller ones- if done right most employees wouldn't even be out of a job- and most of those assets would still be working in the economy, and things would get better, not worse.

But if you don't offer a political action that actually gets us were we want to go, others will, and things will continue to suck. Sure, it will be awesome if one day nobody asks for the political option anymore, but you've got to be realistic and look at the fact we've got to wean people off this crap.

No comments: