[wta-politics] Libertarianism - I've been conned! Part 1

[Marc Geddes]

I've now abandoned economic Libertarianism.  I was
finally talked out of it.  Not that I'm likely to
become a socialist or anything, but economically I'm
now moved to the center.  I'm convinced that
(economically at least) the exact center is likely the
optimum for over-all quality of life.  The reason I'm
posting this is become I passed through a phase
lasting several years where I was a supporter of
moderate Libertarianism and I posted arguments in
favor to the wta lists.  It's important that I tell
everyone on the list that I now believe I was
seriously deluded.  This must come as quite a shock to
some here.  My conversion to the centralist position
is quite recent.  The fact that I've changed my mind
shows you that it's possible for others on the lists
to make major shifts too.  Although it must be said I
was never really a hard-core Libertarian in the first
place.  

Since no one is more familiar with Libertarian
arguments than me, I can give an insight into why I
was seduced by this philosophy and possibly come up
with the arguments which can help other Libertarian
ideologues see sense.

So where did I go wrong?

(1)  Underestimating human selfishness and capacity
for self-serving deception

The more I studied history the more I realized that
the tendency of the powerful to abuse the weak is far
more pervasive than I ever realized.  Discrimination
and abuse is everywhere.  I was sobered by learning
that according to psychologists 1-3% of the population
are psychopaths.  Thugs, fraudsters and psychos
quickly float to the top without strong democratic
checks and balances.   For instance I was sobered by
learning about how the mafia used to run Las Vegas in
the absence of proper gaming regulations.  Human
nature isn't pretty at all.

Talk about 'enlightened self-interest' is just an
excuse for bad behavior.  Indeed the more I heard
opposing arguments and the more I learned about
history and human nature, the more I worried that
Libertarians were just rationalizing their own
selfishness.  I was disturbed by learning about the
background behind 'Tech Central Station' for instance
- how it was funded by corporations.  Or learning that
the motives of many of the people making Libertarians
arguments were less than pure.  I increasingly began
to worry that I'd been conned.

(2)  Underestimating human stupidity

Humans are ... to put it mildly... generally far more
stupid than I realized.  We're way too short-sighted
and we all tend to over-estimate our own reasoning
abilities.  The only real way to mitigate the
stupidity is democracy - where multiple competing
view-points come under intense public scrutiny and
views are averaged out - this is inefficient but it
does succeed in washing out the irrationality over the
long run.

(3)  Failing to realize the importance of public goods

A closer study of history showed me that it didn't
conform to the Libertarian stories I was being fed
about the virtues of deregulation.  In India for
instance where there are few fire safety regulations,
I discovered that schools regularly burn down there
and many children die.  Or in parts of Asia with no
food safety regulations tourists are falling over half
the time from food poisoning.  

Numerous examples from the laissez-faire era showed me
that people were dropping like flies because of lack
of infrastructure.  For instance lack of a sewage
system in London during the 19th century causing
thousands of deaths from chorea.  Or infectious
diseases wiping out millions - and infectious diseases
don't respect class boundaries.

Clearly public goods do exist.  Certain necessary
goods and services simply weren’t being handled by the
market, because they required large scale social
co-ordination and you couldn't divide up their
distribution - hence the free rider problem preventing
the making of a profit.    The only solution is
democratic government to provide these public goods.
I was disturbed by statistics on health-care which
didn't seem to conform to the Libertarian fables I was
being fed.  Why if capitalism was so great did
Canadians spend far less on health-care than
Americans, yet actually have longer life-spans?  Why
were so many in the U.S uninsured and why all the
expensive un necessary tests?  Libertarian
rationalizations seemed increasingly difficult to
justify.


(4)  Simplistic notions of 'liberty'.  

Libertarians had fine ideals, but the more I heard the
opposing arguments, the more I suspected that
Libertarianism involves a flawed notion of 'freedom'. 
Freedom is something we can all agree to, but the
question is freedom for whom?  The more I listened to
opposing arguments, the more I worried that
Libertarians were really only interested in freedom
for *themselves*.  I was increasingly disturbed by the
level of hypocrisy I came across in Libertarian
forums.  The people calling for 'freedom from big
government' when things were going well for them were
the same people running to the government for
hand-outs when things went badly.

Real freedom has to take everyone into account.  At
any given time the total wealth in existence is
constant.  Exercise of resources by the rich means a
restriction of freedom for the less well off.  Freedom
for a few is not real freedom.  Real freedom has to
include everybody.  

Further real freedom has to take account of the
long-term, not just the short-term.  During the
laissez-faire a tiny minority got rich whilst large
numbers of people lived their lives in slums in the
absence of public education.  Without some minimum
level of opportunities for all, large numbers of
people would have no future.

(5) Trusting smart people too much - failing to
realize that 'Smart people believe weird things'

I think I was seduced by Libertarianism because it's a
popular ideology in cyberspace and many people on the
net have exceptionally high IQ's and can hence produce
'kick ass' arguments which really impress lesser
intellects.  But in fact IQ is not the same thing as
rationality and if anything the higher the IQ the more
susceptible to irrationality one is, because the high
IQ types can rationalize their views so well and hence
make ideologies seem very convincing.

Even immensely smart people are susceptible to
irrationality.  I increasingly became disturbed by the
fact that even very smart people on the transhumanist
lists seemed to have some very serious 'cognitive
blindness’s'.   I begun to realize that arguments for
Libertarianism were much less impressive than they
first seemed.    


(6)  Elections/Debates usually end in a draw/close to
the center

Why if Libertarianism is so great were all the first
world countries either close to the center
economically, or racing towards the center as fast as
possible?  Why do people tend to vote in centralist
politicians?  Are entire voting populations so
deluded?  As I studied history I realized that there
are actually damn good reasons why on average people
vote the way they do.  More socialism was voted in
because laissez-faire policies simply weren't working.
 The most successful nations (European) have ended up
close to the center for a reason.  Arguments for
Libertarian versus Socialism between ultra smart
people on internet message boards usually end up draws
over-all.  You should be able to see this from the wta
lists.  This strongly indicates that economically the
optimum position for over-all qualify of life really
is in the dead center.  

(7)	Much of economics is actually pseudo-science

I had been led to believe that ‘neo-classical’
economics was a solid science but after reading
critiques I was rather shocked to learn that actually
most economic models are highly idealized conceptions
that do not conform to reality.  The more I read, the
more I realized that much of economics must be
regarded as pseudo-science and arguments for
Libertarianism just fell apart on me  (For instance
see my next post: I'm publicly renouncing
Libertarianism - I've been conned! Part 2)


So these are just some of the reasons why I've finally
seen sense and converted to the economic center.  This
conversion is likely to be my final position.  I still
think socialism as an economic theory is severely
flawed and am not likely to swing to that any more
than I'm likely to go back to Libertarianism.  After
years of arguments and counter-arguments I'm now
pretty damn convinced that the answer must be in the
center.   


---

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,  
  For, put them side by side,  
The one the other will include  
  With ease, and you beside. 

-Emily Dickinson

'The brain is wider than the sky'
http://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html

---

Please visit my web-site:

Mathematics, Mind and Matter
http://www.riemannai.org/

---

Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
http://au.movies.yahoo.com