Sep 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Why Ron Paul
My new friend, the Ron Paul fan, explains why he joined the rEVOLution:
See the “Demoktesis” chapter of Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia for a more philosophically rigorous exposition of this idea.
31 Responses to “Why Ron Paul”
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September 1st, 2008 at 10:58 am
Uh, no. Unlike a slave, he is free to leave at any time and move to any of the many nations of the world where the libertarian utopia has proven successful.
Unlike a slave, he is free to convince his fellow Americans to vote in the libertarian utopia.
Unlike a slave, he is free to exchange his labor for barter, thus avoiding income taxes altogether.
Another utopian bubblehead. Why do you dignify this claptrap, Matt? Aren’t there enough real people with important things to say?
September 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
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September 1st, 2008 at 11:02 am
I read Anarchy, State, and Utopia when I was 17 (I think I stole it from the library actually). I remeber it being minarchist with an exception for health care, is that right?
September 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Unlike a slave, he is free to exchange his labor for barter, thus avoiding income taxes altogether.”
I’m not a tax lawyer, but I’m pretty sure this is incorrect. The IRS will take its share regardless of how you’re paid.
In practice, people may dodge taxes by taking payment in kind. But that’s just because barter exchanges are harder to find in audits, not because of any legal right to avoid taxes on barter.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hey Matt,
You should go get some breakfast at Hell’s Kitchen.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am
If the Paulites put Hillary Clinton on the ticket, they might get some better coverage!
September 1st, 2008 at 11:40 am
Sweet! I was wondering what Mike Schank has been up to. Nice to know the rEVOLution made it to Milwaukee.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:47 am
Second the Hell’s Kitchen suggestion. It’s going to be hot outside today (88F predicted in St. Paul), so you might as well get used to it.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Why do you dignify this claptrap, Matt?
Gotta say that video clip wasn’t really dripping with dignity.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
This fellow in the cap kind of resembles Matthew Yglesias if he forgot to shave and get a haircut for a while.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Yet another example that speaking with the media (such as it is) is not in your best interests.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Hilarious acting Matt. You should get a gig on some TV show on the basis of this.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hey, where’d you find the David Crosby mini-me?
September 1st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Dude looks like the camera man in Idiocracy.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Unlike a slave, he is free to convince his fellow Americans to vote in the libertarian utopia.
We didn’t gang-rape that girl, yer honor. We took a vote and she lost. She was free to not have sex with us if she could get enough of us to vote with her.
September 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hey, you know who else is a big Ron Paul supporter? Sarah Palin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YglP4clX0A&NR=1
September 1st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
When I hear this anti-tax argument, it reminds me of Marx’s argument about surplus value and alienated labor. Marx pointed out that the employer does not pay the worker the full value that the worker produces. This strikes me as analogous to the Libertarian argument that government takes what does not belong to it through taxation. I think that Libertarians miss this more radical implication of their thinking: that both the capitalist and the government are appropriating things that do not belong to them.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:33 pm
First of all, Marx never understood the concept of exchange of value or even what “value” is.
Second, like the previous idiot who said we can all go somewhere else, the employee really can go work somewhere else or better yet, work for himself, which, in an anarchist society, by definition is pretty much what would happen – everybody a contractor to everybody else. The taxpayer really cannot unless he surrenders US citizenship as you will be forced at gunpoint to pay taxes on your income anywhere in the world as long as you are considered a US citizen. Comparing working for someone else (odious as the concept is) to coercively forcing someone to hand over his money is brain dead.
I see this is another one of Matt’s egregious and pointless attacks on libertarians. It’s amusing that someone with as little impact on politics as Matt feels it necessary to take on people with even less impact on politics.
Typical chimpanzee behavior: beat up on people lower on the totem pole than yourself.
That’s called being a punk, Matt. If you want to be a punk, Matt, grow the beard back. Without it, you look like a baby punk.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Videotaping libertarians is indeed an egregious and pointless attack.
September 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The types that run the Cato Institute and the Libertarian Party miss that implication. Others don’t…
It’s funny how the popular image of libertarianism is Ayn Rand-quoting corporate ass kissers, when the roots of it actually extend back to the anti-state Left. Somewhere along the line the right-wing “capitalism = free-market” lie ended up becoming more accepted than the truth, to such an extent that when you point out how much modern big business depends on government people think you’re joking or worse.
September 1st, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Bob Barr obviously doesn’t have enough name recognition or he’d be sweeping up the Paul supporters.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Marx pointed out that the employer does not pay the worker the full value that the worker produces.
That ignres the fact that it is the employer that provides the context to make that work valuable. The employer provides the resources and in some cases the organization to make the work, well – work.
It’s like arguing that merchants are parasites because they produce nothing, just buy at a low price and sell at a higher price. What merchants do is facilitate trade – everyone who wants to sell can bring all their goods of a particular type to one guy, and everyone who wants to buy can get all their goods from one guy. Without merchants, everyone would have to go directly to each producer for each thing he wants.
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