Libertarianism.org keeps adding new stuff, so if you’re not a regular reader, now’s a great time to become one. This week we added the following:
- George H. Smith gave us a glance at economic regulations from the past in his new Excursions essay, “Monopolies, Mercantilism, Illegal Buttons, and Saltpeter Men.”
- Jason Kuznicki published a review of Charles Murrary’s new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010. Kuznicki concludes, “I’ll admit to doubting the problem, and to doubting the solution, and in particular to doubting whether a book by Charles Murray could possibly bring it about (sorry). But is it objectionable? Eh. No. It just isn’t.”
- I published three new blog posts, the first two expanding on my piece from last week about the lessons the tech community should have learned from SOPA. In “How Absolute is Libertarian Skepticism,” I clarified what exactly skepticism in the face of government action looks like. In “Why Should We Be Skeptical About Government?” I explained why skepticism is the proper response to most government proposals. Finally, today I published “ ‘Why does the stupid government get to take some of my money?’ ” discussing bad arguments for increasing taxes.
- Libertarianism.org’s media section grew with the addition of the Cato Home Study Course. This 30‐hour audio series explores the major ideas and figures in the history of libertarianism.
- We released another short video featuring Douglas Rasmussen, this time on what libertarians can learn from Aristotle.
- Finally, we released two more talks from our archives: Richard Ebeling on the intellectual roots of spontaneous order and David Kelly on the Objectivist movement.