Interview with Deidre McCloskey

Thoughts about liberty from someone who has thought deeply about the subject. Some highlights:

1. "the bizarre 18th-century idea of liberalism—which is the theory of a society composed entirely of free people, liberi, and no slaves—gave ordinary people the notion that they could have a go.  And go they did. ... Since 1800, with no believable signs of letting up, it has improved the material lives of the poorest among us by startling percentages—4,300 percent in some places (that factor of 44), or 10,000 percent including improvements in quality, or at worst 1,000 percent worldwide".
2. "Liberty is liberty, and is meaningless by parts. You are still a slave if only on odd days of the month."
3. "Statism, being the partial enslavement of people to others by way of the government, ... is anyway not liberal, whether exercised by kings or by Congress. As Tom Paine wrote in the liberal birth year of 1776, 'government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.'  Better keep the power to coerce modest. ... Henry David Thoreau declared, 'I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.'  ... the liberal Italian economist Francesco Ferrara wrote that 'taxation is the great source of everything a corrupt government can devise to the detriment of the people.  Taxation supports the spy, encourages the faction, dictates the content of newspapers.'”
4. "On/off doesn’t answer the important question, which is always more/less."
5. "So here’s what a Liberalism 2.0 favors.  It favors a social safety net, which is to say a clean transfer of money from you and me to the very poor in distress, a hand up so they can take care of their families.  It favors financing pre- and post-natal care and nursery schools for poor kids, which would do more to raise health and educational standards than almost anything we can do later.  It favors compulsory measles vaccination, to prevent the big spillover of contagion that is happening now in Clark County, Washington. It favors compulsory school attendance, financed by you and me, though not the socialized provision of public schools.  The Swedes have since the 1990s had a national voucher system, liberal-style. It favors a small army/coast-guard to protect as against the imminent threat of invasion by Canada and Mexico, and a pile of nuclear weapons and delivery systems to prevent the Russians or Chinese or North Koreans from extorting us.  All this is good, and would result in the government at all levels taking and regulating perhaps 10 percent of the nation’s production. Put me down for 10 percent slavery to government. Not the 30 to 55 percent at present that rich countries enslave."

California shows that the US economy is a mixed system.

Andy Kessler (WSJ, Aug. 2019) describes some of the ways that the state government in CA restricts voluntary market transactions.

The first law of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics” (Thomas Sowell).

What is the difference between protectionism and raising barriers to entry?

Don't import pig semen into Australia.

"Federal agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie said breaches of biosecurity laws would not be tolerated.

"“'his case shows a disturbing disregard for the laws that protect the livelihoods of Australia’s 2,700 pork producers, and the quality of the pork that millions of Australians enjoy each year,' McKenzie said.

"“GD Pork imported the semen illegally in an attempt to get an unfair advantage over its competitors, through new genetics.'

"Western Australian Farmers Federation spokeswoman Jessica Wallace said the offences was 'a selfish act' that could cripple an entire industry.

"Walmart is one of the wonders of the modern world, built from scratch in a hyper-competitive environment, scaled from nothing to the largest company in the US by revenue and by headcount, all resulting from a singular vision of saving everyday people money with everyday low prices. It is the most successful social welfare system ever implemented, saving billions and billions of dollars for everyday Americans without costing taxpayers a dime. It is a testament to the power of compounding interest, to the power of a focused plan executed violently for decades" (Zack Kanter).